Ongoing Arts Program Proposed for Wayne Airport

An ongoing arts program proposed for the new John Wayne Airport terminal would feature rotating visual art exhibitions, professional curators, acquisition of works for a permanent collection and performing arts events, according to preliminary recommendations.

Creation of an arts commission to oversee the program is also included in the proposals, made Tuesday by members of the John Wayne Airport Arts Task Force, a panel appointed in March by the County Board of Supervisors. The terminal is scheduled to open April 1.

The proposals are in first-draft form and may change by Oct. 31 when the task force makes its final recommendations, which then be will be submitted for approval by the supervisors, said Courtney Wiercioch, executive assistant to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose 5th District encompasses the airport.

However, the proposals address several key details of the project. They are “based on overwhelming feedback from the public (obtained through a) survey taken of people using the airport and arts organizations throughout Orange County,” said task force Chairman Harvey Stearn, an Irvine developer and member of the California Arts Council.

Reading from the recommendations, Wiercioch said the program’s overall purpose would be to “initiate and implement arts programs which stimulate, educate and entertain airport users.” Specifically, about four exhibitions would be mounted each year, Wiercioch said. Works would beeither purchased or commissioned for a permanent collection.

And there will be “periodic musical presentations, performing arts and entertainment. Other airports do this, believe it or not,” Wiercioch said. “They have poetry readings and performances by choral and theatrical groups.”

According to the recommendations, a mix of “modern, traditional, ethnic, historical and children’s art” will be shown, Wiercioch said. Historic information and artifacts “that recount Orange County’s past and its history in aviation” also would be displayed.

The commission would probably consist of five members, one from each supervisor’s district.

Either a part-time consultant or a paid, full-time director to head the commission may be hired, as well as professional curators for each exhibit, Wiercioch said.

Details on how the program would be run and funded have yet to be determined, as does an annual operating budget. Funding sources under consideration include the county’s general fund; the airport’s “enterprise fund,” generated by fees charged such airport users as airlines and car rental companies, and private contributors.

The 13 members of the task force include vice chairwoman Dona Anderson, professor of art history at Saddleback College; Richard Stein, managing director of the Grove Shakespeare Festival, and representatives from local businesses.

Kevin E. Consey recently resigned after announcing that he would leave the Newport Harbor Art Museum, where he is executive director, to take a job in Chicago.