Airport Art
ATL Airport Art integrates art into the daily fabric of the Atlanta Airport for the benefit of passengers and employees. The Art program commissions site-specific artwork, produces and curates rotating exhibits, and manages performances and artist programming. With over 1,000 artworks in one of the largest public art sites in the Southeastern U.S., there is plenty to explore.
Artwork Spotlight
Good Trouble: A Tribute to Congressman John Lewis
Designed by Gary Lee Super & Associates
Dedicated April, 2019
John Lewis: Good Trouble, was dedicated in April 2019 to U.S. Congressman John Lewis, civil rights icon and American hero. The tribute project began in 2017, and Airport and City officials worked closely with John Lewis and his family to coordinate.
The installation is on the east side of the Domestic Terminal atrium and includes artifacts, videos and photos from the life of Lewis, a Freedom Rider who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, was beaten by police during the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and served as Georgia congressman for over 30 years.
Among the artifacts displayed are a pen that President Lyndon B. Johnson used to sign the Civil Rights Act, then gave to Lewis; the Medal of Freedom awarded to Lewis by President Barack Obama; some of Lewis’ beloved and quirky chicken statuettes; and a program from Obama’s inauguration signed by the 44th president with the words: “Because of you John.”
At the top of the Lewis tribute wall is a 22-foot-long painting by artist Alexi Torres showing images and icons from Lewis’ life. The painting is bordered by riveted steel, which Gary Lee Super, who designed the tribute wall, said is a nod to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The background music to Lewis’ speeches and remarks, playing on several video monitors, is the Morehouse College Glee Club’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”
The tribute wall has charred wood paneling in the style of a Japanese technique called shosugiban. “The process is to take wood, burn it til it’s charred, and then use a wire brush to clear it off, and the result is a stronger piece of wood that’s impervious to insects and more beautiful,” says Super. “I think that’s a perfect metaphor for the civil rights movement.”
John Lewis died on July 17, 2020. We are grateful for and humbled by his service.
Collection Highlights and Recent Additions
Pre-Security:
John Lewis: Good Trouble, designed by Gary Lee Super, Domestic Atrium
Transportation Mall:
Zimbabwe: A Tradition in Stone by Various artists, Transportation Mall between Concourse T and Concourse A
Flight Paths by Steve Waldeck, Transportation Mall between Concourse A and Concourse B
A Walk Through Atlanta History by Gary Moss, Transportation Mall between Concourse B and Concourse C
Concourses:
Georgia on My Mind by Yuriko Yamaguchi, Concourse T North Corridor
Natural Wonder by Don Cooper, Concourse C Centerpoint
Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute Wall, Concourse E
Saints by Radcliffe Bailey, Concourse E (above escalators)
Veneers by Amy Landesberg, Concourse E and F Connector Corridor
Mammatus by Christopher Moulder, International Terminal – Arrivals Level
Soul Ties That Matter by Kevin Cole, Concourse F
Rotating Exhibits
Sandler Hudson Gallery, T South Display Cases
This Land Calls Us Home, Global Ministries, T North Display Cases
Time to Relocate, Yvonne McCoy, Atrium Gallery
New Outside, Barbara Barberis, Peter Essick, Brandon Paillant, Margeaux Walter, Transportation Mall
Youth Art – Georgia Art Education Association, T Crossover; Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, Concourse D; Georgia Art Education Association, Concourse E
Lunch Box Time Capsule, Columbus Lunch Box Museum, Concourse E
Meltdown, Jourdan Joly, Concourse E
Who Comes Today and Stays Tomorrow, Sara Santamaria, Concourse E
Buyer Beware, U.S. Fish & Wildlife/Zoo Atlanta, Concourse E
City as Site, Mary Stuart Hall, Y Malik Jalal, Yoon Nam, Hannah Palmer, Carley Rickles, Gregor Turk, Concourse E
About ATL Airport Art
Pre-History
The initiative to display artworks at ATL originated in 1979, when the Domestic Terminal was constructed under the first term of Mayor Maynard Jackson. That year and the following, the Airport commissioned and installed large-scale, permanent artworks by Curtis Patterson, David Hammons, Lynda Benglis, Benny Andrews, Sam Gilliam and others. The Airport received its first of two Governor’s Awards for the Arts for this series of commissions, although sadly, an ongoing program was not instituted and the artworks fell into disrepair.
Some 25 years later, the current iteration of the art program began when new artworks were commissioned to welcome the world to Atlanta for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. Artworks were commissioned and installed at every gate on the newly built Concourse E. Based on the popular and critical success of the Olympic artworks, Airport General Manager Angela Gittens secured two full-time manager positions to implement and maintain an art program at ATL.
History
In the years following the 1996 Olympics, City of Atlanta Cultural Affairs employees David Vogt and Lamar Renford developed a rotating exhibitions program, several annual music series and the first large-scale installation in the Transportation Mall—a collection of 20 monumental stone sculptures by world-renowned Zimbabwean masters, installed in 2001. Vogt would continue to lead Airport Art for more than two decades as Renford retired and Katherine Dirga joined as co-manager. The duo vastly expanded the scope of rotating exhibitions, commissioning major installations in the Transportation Mall and selecting a series of large artworks for the Maynard Holbrook Jackson International Terminal in 2012. Year by year, the program grew: new commissions were created by international artists and homegrown talent alike; three Youth Art galleries were added to feature children from across the state; two permanent tribute exhibits were installed to monumentalize Civil Rights icons Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis, and a tribute to our country’s military service members. Exhibition partners have included NASA, the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the estate of Lois Mai-Lou Jones, Atlanta Film Festival, Booth Western Art Museum, National Park Service, and many more. In 2017, the Art Program dedicated Flight Paths, a 450-foot long immersive forest environment and the largest public artwork in Atlanta’s history (as well as the Airport’s most-Instagrammed). In 2018, Flight Paths won a public art industry award from CODAworx and helped garner a second Governor’s Award for the Arts for the Art Program.
Direction
Benjamin Austin assumed interim senior leadership of ATL Airport Art in 2020, with Jess Bernhart joining as a consultant. Together they maintain the program’s legacy while introducing new works. Upcoming projects include an ongoing partnership with National Geographic to bring the world’s best photographers to the world’s busiest airport; a fourth major installation in the Transportation Mall using lenticular printing; an artist-in-residence program where writers, choreographers and visual artists will create artwork right out of the fabric of Hartsfield-Jackson; and a micro-cinema movie theater where passengers can enjoy free, short films by Georgia filmmakers and documentarians.
2021 marks the 25th anniversary of ATL Airport Art.
Opportunities
Please be advised that the Airport Art Program accepts proposals on an ongoing basis. Due to the high volume of inquiries, we kindly ask you to be patient and understand that not every submission will receive a response. Rest assured that you will hear back from us if we are interested in working with you. Thank you for your interest in our program!
Staff
Benjamin Austin
Benjamin Austin is a curator of contemporary art and senior manager of the ATL Airport Art Program. He holds master’s degrees in curatorial studies from Bard College and in film and media studies from Emory University. Austin also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Jess Bernhart
Jess Bernhart is a writer, curator, and program manager for ATL Airport Art. Outside of the Airport, Bernhart co-curates an independent arts publishing platform, fLoromancy, and runs an experimental artist residency project, Volatile Parts. Since 2016, she has served on the steering committee of Idea Capital, an Atlanta arts funding organization. She holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
Pre Reid
Pre Reid is a curator and program coordinator for the ATL Airport Art Program. Before working with the Airport, she worked at the High Museum of Art, The Council on Culture & Arts, and The Wells’ Built Museum of African American History & Culture. Reid holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Graphic Design from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Lauren Kolodkin
Lauren Kolodkin is an art historian and program coordinator for the ATL Airport Art Program. She received her MA in the History of Art & Architecture from Boston University in 2016, specializing in 20th-century American folk art and collecting practices. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC for seven years prior to joining the ATL team.
