Frenetic travelers at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport have only a few more months to wait for a sea of calm to greet them at TSA checkpoints and beyond.
GSP, with its infrastructure virtually completed, is now working on its amenities to create its brand.
Nine artists, commissioned from a nationwide search, will have exhibits that GSP officials and commissioners hope will have a tranquil affect on passengers.
“It’s a tense world and there are a lot of stress points in an airport,” GSP Commissioner Bill Barnet said. “The idea of the art is that it is uplifting and positive.”
A study published in Neurolmage, a journal of brain function, reported its findings demonstrated that tranquil environmental scenes containing natural features, such as the sea, cause distinct brain areas to become connected with one another.
Barnet said GSP officials visited Nashville’s airport to study its art collection. “We wanted to see how it feels. A waterfall is calming art.”
“We wanted to get the customer’s experience in Nashville,” Roslyn Weston, spokesperson for GSP, said. “A lot of people travel and there are a lot of stress points along the way.”
A large cascading waterfall will greet passengers as they enter the TSA checkpoint.
The art at GSP will represent paintings and sculptures that have as much a back story that makes the artwork all the more interesting.
Weston has been speaking to groups in the past three weeks and can hardly hold back her own enthusiasm. “My favorite piece of art is by what I call the ‘blowup lady’”, she said. “There’s a former attorney that put away her law books and took up the paintbrush.”
Weston teased a Greer Chamber of Commerce gathering claiming a bright, colorful work to appear in the Grand Hall is neither Clemson orange or South Carolina garnet, although each school could claim the painting.
“We have some great artists that will be coming into the airport,” Weston said. “We will have a mini art gallery and we think the public will be happy and pleased with what we are doing.”
Weston said the art will be centered on three themes – textiles, water and technology.
“We wanted to pitch textiles because we have a rich textile history. We have so many bodies of water with waterfalls and rivers. And technology is changing the upstate,” Weston said. “Art helps tie the story to the region and they get to know you. It defines the past, present and future.”