Phoenix Airport Museum's Creature Feature art exhibition on display at Terminal 4, level 3 Gallery. Photo Courtesy of Phoenix Airport Museum

We have a little bit of an identity problem because when we say the Phoenix Airport Museum people often think that it is one building and you have to go to this one building or group of buildings. I like to think of the Phoenix Airport Museum as a museum throughout the airport system: inside, outside, above and below. - Gary Martelli

Sterling Beeaff: Well I am speaking with Gary Martelli who is the, the title is curator?

Gary Martelli: Curator and Program Manager for the Phoenix Airport Museum.

Sterling Beeaff: As you travel more and more, airports look more and more like each other no matter where you are. But Phoenix has become distinct, largely because of your efforts. How long have you been doing this as a curator?

Gary Martelli: Well, I’ve been working for the Phoenix Airport Museum for over 20 years. Recently the person who actually started the program, Lennée Eller, retired earlier this year, and she started the program from scratch, basically as a one woman show, and then built the program into what it is today, which is one of the largest art programs at an airport in the country. We have exhibition spaces, over 30 of them, in all three terminals, as well as the rental car center, which is off-site. We also have exhibitions in Phoenix Goodyear Airport and Phoenix Deer Valley Airport.

Sterling Beeaff: What informs your decisions? You have a number of exhibitions up at any one time.

Gary Martelli: Our mission is to enhance the travelling public’s experience by creating a memorable environment that showcases Arizona’s unique artistic and cultural heritage and resources. So that’s kind of what we stick to is we want to show the rest of the country and all the travelers that are coming from different places a little bit of our culture and our artwork. We curate exhibitions from the community at large, throughout the state, borrowing artworks from individual artists or from specific museums, like the Heard Museum or the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. We also have a collection of art, of about 900 works.

In the early days, businessmen would actually pool their resources and purchase artwork as the terminal was being built or constructed and then as the program grew, we have in place now a charter that is a percent for art charter, so that construction monies capital improvement projects, 1% of those monies can be spent on art. Also through the years we’ve had many donations of artwork as well.

Sterling Beeaff: So you must have developed some relationships with artists over the years?

Gary Martelli: We invite artists that are interested in having their work looked at as a possibility for exhibition to send us their information and we maintain a database of, I think it is about 1500 artists that are on there now, Arizona artists.

Sterling Beeaff: We have to be careful what we take into the airport. Have you ever had some eyebrows raised when you say I want to bring this in?

Gary Martelli: Well, it is a public space and folks aren’t coming specifically to see art when they are travelling, so we do not want to do anything that would cause someone some discomfort, so we’re aware we don’t show nudity and there is certain subject matters- we wouldn’t show planes crashing and things like that.

Sterling Beeaff: Good call! (Laughter)

Gary Martelli: We’ve done pretty good; we haven’t had too many complaints I can even think of in the past.

Sterling Beeaff: Congratulations and Good Job!

Gary Martelli: Thank you.

Produced by Jane Hilton