Artworks are often placed to awe and inspire onlookers, but Vancouver International Airport has gone a step further – using art to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the region’s indigenous people. Howard Slutsken visited the Pacific hub to admire the view...
Art in airports is nothing new. However, Vancouver International (YVR) has taken the age-old concept to fantastic new levels, designing its terminals around installations created to reflect the area’s indigenous traditions and stunning landscape.
“Airports are more than just buildings and runways and parking lots, ” Rita Beiks, curator of the YVR Art Programme, told Airports of the World. “They encompass the spirit and capture the imagination of the community.”
Sitting at the mouth of the Fraser River just a few miles south of downtown Vancouver, YVR was built on the traditional lands of the Musqueum people. Much of the art on show today was commissioned from Musqueum artists as part of the Canadian gateway’s efforts to strengthen its relationship with the local First Nations community.
In the late 1980s, as YVR transitioned to an independent airport authority, then-site manager, Frank O’Neill, led the shift to a new theme for the facility – ‘…
