MOBILE ART PROJECT PLANNED AT AIRPORT

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PHOENIX (AP) — Armed with a $3 million check, a lineup of internationally known artists is looking at innovative ways to blend art into airport train stations at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Work is set to begin on the 4.8-mile, $1.1 billion automated-train project in a few weeks, with the first phase opening in 2013.

The airport’s 20-year-old public-art program plans to add creative touches to the inside of train cars while jazzing up the concrete and steel columns that support the tracks, said Ed Lebow, Phoenix’s art program director.

With 42 million passengers as its audience, Sky Harbor’s art can reach more people than traditional museums.

“That’s eight times as many people that go through [New York’s] Metropolitan Museum of Art each year and five times as many who go to the Louvre,” Lebow said.

When it is completed, the driverless train will whisk passengers to airport terminals, rental car agencies, parking lots and the 44th Street light-rail station.

The art collection at Sky Harbor has more than 500 pieces, and an art gallery in Terminal 4, the airport’s busiest. The airport regularly showcases work from local galleries and museums, said the airport’s curator, Lenne Eller.

Over the next five or six years, Phoenix plans to invest millions into several projects ranging from expanding Phoenix Airport Museum’s art collection to integrating art into airport renovations.