Often called the best museum in San Francisco, the exhibits at San Francisco International Airport showcase art and artifacts from around the world. They're so good, in fact, that for many museum-lovers, San Francisco International has become a destination in itself

Anyone who has spent much time in an airport knows the tedium of waiting around for a flight. Yet the airport is often the first introduction to a city for visitors and the last place they see before returning home. Making the experience enjoyable for them is not only a show of civic hospitality, it speaks to the cultural vitality of the city.

Or so the San Francisco Airport Commission reasoned in 1980 when it agreed to establish a changing art exhibition program at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). It is still the most extensive program of its kind in the United States..

"We in San Francisco are very proud of ourselves for being unique and different," says Jane Sullivan, SFO manager of marketing and communications. "This is just another amenity that the City and County and Airport can provide. People probably spend more time in airports than in museums. Why not have the museum at the airport?"

A welcome diversion for the traveling public, the initial exhibitions in the North Terminal occupied by United Airlines were an instant hit so much so that the San Francisco Airport Museums program has since expanded into all four terminals at SFO. In 2000 alone, the Museums organized some 55 exhibitions. The shows focus on an eclectic mix of topics, ranging from nostalgic looks at lunch boxes and cocktail shakers to international displays of Balinese masks and Australian boomerangs.

The diversity and scope of the exhibits now demand a full-scale staff. Over the past two decades, SF Airport Museums has grown from a team of five people, tucked into a tiny office next to a United Airlines gate, to 30 professionals including curators, designers, registrars, preparators and conservators housed in a building offsite. Their detailed attention to strict museum conservation standards earned the SF Airport Museums accreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 1999.

A desire to humanize the airport environment is not the only reason that the Airport Commission has devoted significant funds to these major exhibitions. Although not an income-generating entity itself, SF Airport Museums is helping to draw more business to airport concessions, an important source of revenue for SFO. "We're considered an enterprise department of the city, which means that we are completely self-funded,"explains Sullivan.

That means that SFO gives 15% of its concession revenue to the city. The remaining 85% is used to meet the airport's operating expenses, with the difference between concession revenues and operating budget determining the terminal rental and landing fees for airlines. "It is in everyone's best interest to make the airport a place where people want to come and spend money," Sullivan adds.

At the same time, SFO has tried to make a pleasing environment for everyone. "We made a decision quite a while ago not to have advertising in our terminals (although limited advertising is now being allowed in the garages and connectors) in large part because we did not want to subject the traveling public to that sort of assault. It is a huge potential revenue source that we haven't tapped.".

While it is impossible to calculate whether the art exhibits generate dollars, SFO's annual consumer survey shows that they consistently ranked as one of the airport's most popular attractions. Anecdotal reports indicate that, especially with the opening of the new International Terminal this year, people are making a special effort to get to the airport earlier to take in the exhibits, eat at the restaurants that include some of the best-known local establishments in the Bay Area, and shop the many top-brand retail stores..

On any given day, SFO has a population that would make it one of the largest cities in California. Not only does the airport have a staff of 35,000 employees, it serves 40 million travelers and another 10 million "meeters and greeters" a year. This is a potential audience that any museum in the world would envy..

On the other hand, the airport environment presents the SF Airport Museums staff with challenges that traditional museums rarely encounter like being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Blake Summers, SF Airport Museums director and chief curator, says that this requires a great deal of preplanning since they don't have the luxury of closing down sections of a terminal during installation or blocking heavily trafficked walkways. "We set up everything offsite, arrange it in the display cases so that we know exactly what we are going to do and the exact position of each object. Then we take a picture of the display and duplicate the arrangement at the airport," Summers says. While the offsite preplanning may take months, the actual installation happens incredibly fast.

For the most part, SF Airport Museums shows focus on popular culture themes. The reason is not because of security since the airport's around-the-clock activity is a deterrent against art theft, but because SFO also features a fairly sizable permanent fine art collection through the San Francisco Arts Commission. Fine arts paintings by the likes of Wayne Thiebaud, mammoth sculptures and murals in the concourses are part of the Arts Commission's public program. "By default, SF Airport Museums is not allowed to do fine art," explains Summers. "That is why you don't see contemporary artists in our cases. We will wrap in things that pertain to the shows, but you aren't going to see a one-man show or a group show."

What you do see is an imaginative presentation of collectible-type objects that appeal to viewers of every age and cultural background. "Probably our best shows are the ones where we have the popular culture aspect like lunch boxes where somebody recognizes something and can relate to it. Then we expand the idea and bring things in that people wouldn't have experienced before," Summers says. The boomerang exhibit, for instance, showed how the shape has been echoed in an array of other objects including coffee tables..

A current "The Chicken or the Egg" exhibit demonstrates the popularity of chicken, rooster and egg images in cultures worldwide. Another features bicycle lanterns from the early 19th century up to World War II. A major exhibit that lines the concourse of the North Terminal is called "Car Culture," a celebration of America's fascination with cars over the past century. "We show something playful or silly and then throw in very serious artwork," says J. Abram Garfield, the Museums assistant director of exhibitions. "It's fun and accessible and not intimidating."

The exhibits also often focus on intriguing cultural objects that are nostalgic, good-humored and non-controversial. Avoiding controversy is by design since the exhibits are located in a public institution. "We are not a museum with doors," says Summer. "For the most part, the audience is not coming to see us by choice. They are given an opportunity to see our exhibits because they are here to catch a plane.".

This has not only made SF Airport Museums sensitive to different tastes, but aware of the fact that many people see the exhibits as they hurry to and from departure gates. Objects that they can see and understand in passing without stopping to read lengthy descriptions seem to work best.

The SF Airport Museums divides its program into three broad categories: Changing shows that include both case exhibits and wall art, including photography. Children's program including an aquarium, interactive educational display and art from local schools. And the new San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum the only entity of its kind in a major American airport. The museum/library is dedicated to preserving the history of the airport and Pacific Rim commercial aviation. It contains some 9,000 aviation artifacts and is located in the International Terminal, in an 11,500-square-foot space that replicates the interior of the original 1937 San Francisco Airport passenger waiting room. The research library houses some 6,000 books and oral histories that record the pioneering days of flight. The museum is working on putting the contents of the catalog on the Internet so people around the world can access the archives online.

The exceptional quality and the AAM accreditation of SF Airport Museums exhibits have drawn the attention of other museums worldwide, as well as private collectors and retailers, who have been more forthcoming in lending art and artifacts for display. "Over the past five to 10 years, the whole nature of our program has changed because we have higher standards," says Summers. "This has given us the ability to borrow from institutional collections."

In recent years, SF Airport Museums has borrowed art objects from Bay Area institutions such as the Asian Arts Museum, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, the California Art Academy, and the Phoebe Hearst Museum, as well as museums from around the world. Even the Kid's Spot, an interactive play area, was designed with exhibits from the hands-on science museum, the Exploratorium. Such programs offer reciprocal benefits to both the airport and the lending institution. "Most museums own more than they can show," says Garfield. "This allows them to show off things that might be in storage, and it also encourages people to go see their museums."

For the M.H. de Young Museum, which is being completely rebuilt due to damage from the 1989 earthquake, airport exhibitions will be a way to keep its name and collection before the public while it is closed. Over the next five years, the de Young is collaborating with SF Airport Museums to present a series of exhibitions.

The selection of appropriate objects is always a challenge to SF Airport Museums since, unlike traditional museums, it has little control over the ambient environment. "When we are thinking about a show, we have to consider light, temperature and humidity," says Garfield. "There are certain things we can't put in, say, the North Terminal but can in one of the connectors where we can control the light. We work closely with a conservator."

Four new Museums sites that include two 60-foot cases and two areas with 20 freestanding cases each were integrated into the design of the new International Terminal. Serviced by state-of-the-art climate, lighting and security systems, the display cases have expanded the Museums' options for subject matter..

The Airport Commission took the Museums' needs into consideration when planning the space for the new terminal. "The Commission has always been supportive of our program," says Summers. A sign of this respect is the fact that the Museums' director has always been part of the senior staff. "To be involved at that level is remarkable. The airport is behind us."

Sullivan agrees, "As John Martin, our airport director, and Mayor Willie Brown like to say, `This [SFO] is our front door not just for San Francisco but for the entire Bay Area. We want it to reflect the diversity, beauty and culture that are here.' We San Franciscans place value on aesthetics and on our shared culture. The Museums program is a way to bring a sense of specialness to the airport experience."