#sfo museum

[guy60660]

Pacific Southwest Airlines | SFO Museum

[professorpski]

Flight Patterns—Airline Uniforms from the 1960s–70s

People are getting back on planes these days, just in time to see this exhibition by the SFO Museum at the San Francisco International Airport. It is located in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1, Departures - Level 2, and is running through March 13, 2022.       

As the curators point out, these followed the fashion trends of the time and some were even designed by famous fashion designers. So we get the ultra bright colors and some swirling prints, practical separates to mix and match, the mini skirt and the shift dress, and lots of polyester double-knit and nylons that you could throw in the wash. And some came with hats too. Both Jean Louis and Emilio Pucci designed some of these ready-to-wear garments.

As you can see from the poses in the two photographs, they couldn’t quite decide if the stewardesses were serious and attractive professionals, or if they should be laid out on the airplane wings like overdressed pin-up girls. But they were sure they should be fashionable.

The curators have posted many of these online as well, so if you can’t SFO, you can get still enjoys these fashions: https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/flight-patterns-airline-uniforms

[derekjlynch]

PRE INSTALL

[superchlorine]

The Armchair (There is nothing he would love more, than to leap upon that chair, and have a long nap.) 1982 Mickey McGowan aquarium, dollhouse chair, toy dog, sand

(seen at the SFO Museum)

[greport2018]

The inspiring life of Captain Zoya Agarwal

The inspiring life of Captain Zoya Agarwal

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[hilite-head]

de Young + SFO Museum

de Young + SFO Museum

View On WordPress

[curatorialista]

Maneki Neko: Japan’s Beckoning Cat

On my way to Paris this morning, running to catch my flight at San Francisco International Airport, once again, was stopped in my tracks by the installation and curated exhibition on display at the airport's Terminal Two (frankly, when my driver announced we'd arrived at our terminal, and that it was Terminal Two, I was excited by the prospect of what I might see).

On past occasions, I've been met at Terminal Two with exhibitions of work by my friend, Marvin Lipofsky, whose work with color and blown glass shapes took the medium and its expression to fantastical heights (technical accomplishment, concept). On other occasions, and at other terminals, I've been fortunate to find a grouping of iconoclastic San Francisco paintings by the San Francisco trifecta of Robert Bechtle, Wayne Thiebaud, and James Torlakson (are they grouped together because they’re paintings by men from San Francisco, or is it because of a common theme, the American fascination with roads and road travel, maybe?).

Oh, but there is diversity in the SFO Museum's Public Art collection, as represented by Jay de Feo's blisteringly dark painting, "Masquerade in Black, 1974" and Deborah Butterfield's homage to the equine, with "Põhina, 2001" made of bronze castings of found objects, Hung Liu's richly narrative paintings, "Take Off, 2006 2006," and Yayoi Kusama's "High Heels for Going to Heaven, 2014", signature work, among others.

So, this morning's discovery of the Maneki Neko exhibition was affirmative of what I've come to expect from the San Francisco Airport Museum's installations. Fine things.

The story of the maneki neko, or beckoning cat figurines, is thought to date back to the late Edo period (1615-1868), when artisans in Japan began to make these figures in honor of its auspicious nature (for centuries, the cat had been valued for its ability to kill rodents) from ceramic and plaster, although some were also made in copper, bronze, wood, stone, and iron.

Today, maneki neko are found in Japanese (and sometimes, Chinese) businesses, near the entrance or in a window, where they silently beckon potential customers to enter. The figures classically show a cat with a raised left paw, an effort to bring luck and good fortune to a business; the right paw invites good fortune, health, and happiness into the home. Colors are also important: white represents happiness and satisfaction, black symbolizes safety and helps to drive away evil, while gold maneki neko symbolizes money and fortune. A distinctive feature of maneki neko is the bib attached to the neck. Bibs are frequently painted with traditional symbols of good luck and fortune, such as coins. Maneki neko, while made in the form of a cat, and look similar, on close inspection, show variations in color, size, facial features, and bib decoration.

And while this exhibition is housed in a busy international airport at the juxtaposition of the United States and Asia, it is, like any museum exhibition, properly curated, lit, and accompanied by generous displays of wall text to explain to the wanderer what was before us. In fact, in 1999, the SFO Museum (SFOM) became the first museum in an airport to receive accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums and is a widely imitated model for museums operating in public arenas.

Today, SFOM features more than twenty galleries throughout the Airport terminals displaying a rotating schedule of art, history, science, and cultural exhibitions, including the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection dedicated to preserving the history of commercial aviation. The maneki neko exhibition was made possible by SFOM's relationships with the Mingei International Museum, who provided the generous loan to make it possible. Much of the exhibition is beyond the security gates ("post security"), and out of reach of San Francisco residents who have no reason to suffer through TSA, and that's a shame, but for those of us in possession of a boarding pass and access to SFO terminals, we are indeed very fortunate to be able to enjoy a world class collection of contemporary fine art available in every terminal. As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, and a frequent traveler through the terminals of the San Francisco International Airport, I am grateful for the excellent curatorial thought and development of these exhibitions, and to the relationships and trust we receive from the international community that allow this to happen.

[fundforteachers]

Ellen Oppenheimer (Oakland 2013) is a professional textile artist and the artist-in-residence at Peralta Elementary. Combining her talent with a K-5 art curriculum, she teaches textile traditions from all over the world to students who create beautiful and unique fabrics used in many ways, but primarily to make amazing quilts, several of which are now on display at the SFO Museum.

It's not the fabrics, but the students and seniors at the Bay Area Community Services Adult Day Care Center, who make this project so exceptional. Ellen’s fifth graders go on multiple field trips to the center where they are matched with an elder. After getting to know their partner, students create quilts documenting their relationships with seniors struggling with dementia.

The seniors and students both have positive outcomes from this project,” said Ellen. “My personal observation is that seniors are stimulated and animated with the students, more so than with adults and contemporaries. And students gain a very genuine sense of their ability to make a positive effect on their community.”

in 2013, Ellen designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to to learn about batik  in Indonesia. In addition to deepening her the skills and learning cultural traditions of batik, the experience reinforced her belief that the most important thing in life is how much we can give of ourselves to other people.

“During their visits, students lift the weight of the disease in so many ways. It is incredible to watch the generations interact -- certainly worthy of being memorialized and promoted through artwork,” said Ellen. “Art is an ideal medium for this project because it is a form of communication that both the students and seniors can utilize to overcome the heartbreaking challenges associated with loss of hearing, arthritis, loss of mobility and dementia.”

Ellen is widely recognized as one of the most important contemporary quilt makers in the United States, with quilts in the collections of The Renwick, the American Craft Museum and the Oakland Museum of California. Learn more about her student collaboration with the Oakland Public Library here and another for the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

(Photos: Ellen on her Fund for Teachers fellowship at a temple in Bali; one example of students/seniors quilts on display at the SFO Museum.)