Ambitious, Impactful, Art Installations Set the Stage for a Transformed Air Travel Experience at A Whole New LGA
As Part of Governor’s Vision for a World-Class Airport at LaGuardia,
Terminal B Will Feature New Permanent Artworks by World-Renowned Artists
Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced today a new partnership with the leading New York-based nonprofit Public Art Fund to bring inspirational, large-scale art installations to the new LaGuardia Airport. As part of the $8 billion transformation of LGA, the new Terminal B will replace the existing Terminal B passenger facilities with a new arrivals and departures hall, two new concourses, and 35 new gates, including 18 new gates that are already open. While the new terminal and concourses will dramatically improve the functionality of the airport, new works of art are intended to enhance dramatically the visual experience for travelers at one of New York’s most important gateways. Specifically, the partnership with Public Art Fund will enable airport travelers to enjoy ambitious permanent commissions by four of the world’s leading artists – Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze. The artists’ installations will be unveiled with the opening of the brand-new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall later this year.
«New York’s airports are the world’s entry points into the United States, and they need to reflect what this state and country are all about,» Governor Cuomo said. «As we are building a new LaGuardia to meet 21st century travel standards, we are also bringing in the work of renowned artists who capture the unique elements of Queens and New York, giving travelers a true Empire State experience the moment they arrive.»
The Port Authority, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the private partner joining the Port Authority in the public private partnership redeveloping LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B, and Public Art Fund invited a select group of artists to develop proposals for original and iconic permanent commissions expressing aspects of the New York scene or sensibility and conceived specifically for the new LaGuardia Airport. After a thorough evaluation of all proposals, four artists were awarded permanent commissions for the new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall. Their four permanent installations will be complete for the opening of the new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall opening later this year.
Rick Cotton, Executive Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said, «Building a whole new airport at LaGuardia doesn’t just mean bricks and mortar, though we’re certainly doing that. It also means transforming the experience for travelers with striking artwork that conveys a sense of place – a sense of Queens and of the Empire State. We are delighted that the work of these four prominent artists will serve as focal points inside the new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall. This new partnership will help beautify, engage and inspire travelers coming through LaGuardia’s Terminal B.»
Kevin O’Toole, Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said «Great airports provide customers with an experience that surpasses expectations, and with the help of Public Art Fund, artists’ work will be seen throughout the new world-class Arrivals and Departures Hall at LaGuardia’s Terminal B. The artwork honors our diversity as a region and as an agency, while bringing the airport’s public spaces to life.»
Stewart Steeves, CEO of LaGuardia Gateway Partners, said, «We are thrilled to partner with Public Art Fund on this innovative project to continue to transform Terminal B into a modern, top-class airport terminal for travelers. Our goal in building a new Terminal B is to not only implement state-of-the-art advancements, but to also create a space that represents the soul of New York. We are confident that through this partnership, we have selected artists and unique pieces for the new terminal that reflect this vision.»
Nicholas Baume, Director & Chief Curator of Public Art Fund, said «New Yorkers will soon have a major terminal at LaGuardia Airport that reflects the energy, vitality, and innovation of New York City. Great art and artists are fundamental to New York’s DNA, and we are excited to collaborate with several of the world’s most visionary artists, LaGuardia Gateway Partners and the Port Authority to create a unique new terminal that brilliantly expresses the creative spirit of New York.»
George Casey, Chairman of the Board of LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Chair and CEO of Vantage Airport Group, said, «The addition of contemporary art in the new terminal is key to our mission of building a sense of place at the new LaGuardia, one that is in tune with New York City’s great tradition as one of the modern art capitals of the world. We couldn’t be happier to work with some of the world’s most thrilling artists and Public Art Fund to inspire travelers as they visit Terminal B.»
The Artists
Jeppe Hein: A resident of Berlin, Jeppe Hein creates interactive artworks that lie at the intersection of art, architecture, and technical inventions. Unique in their formal simplicity and frequent use of humor, his works recall traditions of Minimalist sculpture and Conceptual art of the 1970s, and often feature surprising and captivating elements that focus the spectator’s experience on the surrounding space. Hein’s notable previous exhibitions include Please Touch The Art exhibited at Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2015, as well as permanent installations in numerous locations throughout Europe.
Sabine Hornig: Berlin based artist Sabine Hornig is known for her sculptures, spatial interventions and transparent photographs that recontextualize familiar places through overlapping perspectives and inversions of scale and dimension. These concepts allow for new interpretations of conventional histories, memory, and the lived environment. Her large-scale architectural artworks, applied directly onto the existing glass facades of buildings, enable the public to simultaneously experience various visions and perspectives at the same time on the transparent medium. Throughout the past two decades, Hornig has realized such installations worldwide as well as exhibited regularly in New York.
Laura Owens: Los Angeles based artist Laura Owens has achieved international recognition for her dynamic and experimental paintings. Incorporating diverse references and techniques, her art challenges the nature of painting in bold and often witty ways, while demonstrating an intimate awareness of form, color, and line. Owens’ work has been featured in museums internationally, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and other prominent institutions across the globe.
Sarah Sze: A resident of New York City and professor of visual arts at Columbia University, Sarah Sze’s immersive, large-scale works navigate the proliferation of images, objects, and information that surround us daily by employing complex constellations of myriad materials. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2003, Sze has exhibited extensively in museums worldwide and represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Sze has been engaged in public commissions throughout her career, most recently «Blueprint for a Landscape,» 2017, which transforms the 96th Street Station of the new Second Avenue Subway Line.
Complementing the four permanent commissions, the partnership includes additional temporary artwork installed throughout the facility, providing more artists the opportunity to engage with the new terminal and its visitors. The first of this series was installed in July 2019 in the new eastern concourse, the initial portion of the new Terminal B to debut, and currently features artworks by Chris Bogia and Olaf Breuning.
Chris Bogia: A resident of Queens for more than 15 years, Chris Bogia is a recent alum of the Queens Museum Studio Program (2018) and an instructor of sculpture at New York University. Bogia received his MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT and his BA from New York University, NY. He was a recent recipient of the Jackson Pollock – Lee Krasner Foundation Grant, a Queens Council for the Arts, New Works Grant, as well as a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant. Bogia is also the co-founder and director of Fire Island Artist Residency, the world’s first LGBTQ artist residency. Bogia’s work for Terminal B, entitled Windowsill Watcher (2018), is an abstract sculpture that combines methods drawn from the history of decorative arts, folk craft movements and interior design.
Olaf Breuning: New York based, Swiss artist Olaf Breuning has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Swiss Institute in New York, the Migros Museum in Zurich, the Australian Center of Photography in Sydney, and the Centre d’Art Contemporain in La Chapelle du Genêteil France, among others. Breuning’s works on view in Terminal B, entitled Clouds (2014), and Thumbs Up (2015), evoke improvised signage, theatrical flats and children’s sketches inspired by one of the artist’s own photographs.
This new partnership with LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Public Art Fund is yet another milestone in incorporating art into the historic $8 billion transformation of LaGuardia Airport and a critical sign of progress in the comprehensive LaGuardia Terminal B redevelopment program. This partnership comes just ahead of the start of the Queens Council on the Arts’ third year of its renowned Artport Residency, a collaboration with the Port Authority that enables local artists to utilize LaGuardia Airport Terminal A’s rotunda for creating new works and connecting with passengers.
A Whole New LGA
In July 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the vision for a complete redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport, which will provide a world-class, 21st century passenger experience featuring modern customer amenities, state-of-the-art architecture, more spacious gate areas and a unified terminal system. The $8 billion project, three-quarters of which is funded through private financing and existing passenger fees, broke ground in 2016.
In February 2018, the new Terminal B parking garage opened with 3,200 spaces and a dedicated level for Uber, Lyft and other for-hire car services. In December 2018, Governor Cuomo opened the first new gates and the first new concourse in Terminal B which serves Air Canada, American Airlines, Southwest and United. In October 2019, the first new concourse and gates at Delta Air Lines’ new Terminal C opened, which includes seven new gates on the far eastern side of the airport. Also in October of last year, the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners formally authorized the funding needed, pending completion of the FAA’s independent environmental review, to develop the new AirTrain LGA. With Governor Cuomo’s key support, the long-awaited AirTrain LGA is on track to take its place at a new world-class LaGuardia Airport that will no longer be the only major East Coast airport without a rail link. AirTrain LGA would connect the airport with a new station at Willets Point and get travelers out of their cars and steadily reduce traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution.
In addition to the opening of the new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall, a vast majority of major roadway work for the new airport is also set to be complete in mid-2020. A modern arrivals and departures hall at Terminal C will open in 2022 with the phased opening of three additional concourses.
Redeveloping LGA Airport in Lockstep with the Local Community
As part of the unprecedented LaGuardia Redevelopment program, Governor Cuomo set a goal of increasing the number of LaGuardia Airport contracts with certified minority and women-owned businesses (MWBE) to 30 percent, the highest such goal in the nation. Following Governor Cuomo’s vision, the Port Authority is working hand in hand with local elected officials, stakeholders, and Queens residents to ensure local businesses, MWBEs, jobseekers and students take advantage of new opportunities as part of LaGuardia Airport’s redevelopment and economic growth.
In April 2019, Governor Cuomo announced the opening of the new Council for Airport Opportunity (CAO) office in Corona, in partnership with two community-based organizations. CAO provides airport-related recruitment and job placement services to minority and disadvantaged residents in Queens. In December 2019, the Port Authority opened a new, permanent community office for the LGA Redevelopment Program in East Elmhurst. At the opening, the agency announced it would again partner with Vaughn College on a second round of full-tuition, four-year scholarships for Queens students. In addition, the LaGuardia Redevelopment program has also partnered with LaGuardia Community College to create internship programs for local youth. This summer, LGA Redevelopment funded a 6-week STEM education program for 50 middle school students at Langston Hughes Library in Corona.
Overall, the redevelopment of LaGuardia is anticipated to create a combined $10 billion in economic activity and $2.5 billion in wages over the life of the project. LaGuardia Airport contracts with certified MWBEs have now exceeded $1.47 billion. At the new Terminal B, LaGuardia Gateway Partners has over $907 million in contracts with commitments with 286 MWBE firms to date, and at the new Terminal C, Delta has more than $57 million in contracts and commitments with 149 MWBEs firms.
Public Art Fund
Public Art Fund has presented dynamic exhibitions by the world’s most compelling and significant artists in New York City and beyond for more than 40 years. These projects set the standard for excellence in the field, giving urban space new meaning, while engaging diverse audiences and making culture accessible to all.
In addition to this core program, Public Art Fund also offers consulting services that bring strategic planning, curatorial, and project management expertise to the world’s leading cultural institutions, corporations, and civic organizations through Public Art Fund: Creative Partnerships. Amplifying the impact of partners’ own initiatives, Public Art Fund commissions permanent installations and temporary exhibitions in line with the unique vision of its partners and the specific parameters of each site, resulting in new artworks that activate public spaces and create engaged constituencies through the power of public art. For more information, visit PublicArtFund.org.
LaGuardia Gateway Partners
LaGuardia Gateway Partners was selected by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to deliver an extensive capital redevelopment project at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B that will provide world-class terminal facilities and operations for passengers and airlines.
LaGuardia Gateway Partners is composed of Vantage Airport Group, Skanska, Meridiam, and JLC Infrastructure for development and equity investment. Vantage Airport Group leads the redevelopment program and management of Terminal B, with Skanska Walsh as the design/build joint venture with HOK and WSP for design. LaGuardia Gateway Partners’ members have worked on more than 350 aviation and transportation projects globally and domestically, including international airports in New York (John F. Kennedy), Chicago, Doha, Delhi, Los Angeles, Santiago, and Nassau. For more information, visit www.laguardiaB.com.