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Four years ago, Carmel High School and Ball State University graduate Katie Norman accepted a job at Indianapolis International Airport as a marketing specialist. Since then, Norman—an artist herself—has helped coordinate dozens of displays throughout the airport that are seen by millions of eyes every year. She both works with the airport’s marketing team and collaborates with the Arts Council of Indianapolis on the facility’s art program.
People don’t necessarily associate public art with airports. How did you come to take on these projects?
When I started at the airport four years ago, there was a line in my job description that mentioned working with the Arts Council of Indianapolis on the airport’s arts program. When I saw that, I was immediately interested in the position, and over time it became very apparent that this was a role that was needed, particularly as the permanent collection ages and we try to maintain it. But we also wanted to heighten the other arts programming at the airport.
The joy for me really comes from making connections with emerging artists and being able to give them an opportunity to show their work in an international location. That’s just not an opportunity that a lot of emerging artists get to have.
When you’re looking at potential features, are you looking for things that are related to air travel or just things that catch your eye?
The selections happen in partnership with the Arts Council. They give us the submissions they recommend for the program, and then we look at what we’ve got going on in Indy and what we’ve got going on in the terminal, then we find the best fit. For example, this past year, we’ve been showing work related to the city’s bicentennial and celebrating that.
The NCAA Tournament created of opportunities for the art community through SWISH program and various commissioned opportunities. What was the airport’s rolek?
When we found out that the NCAA was moving the March Madness tournament to Indy, we started thinking about different ways that we could activate the terminal to welcome passengers and to showcase the whole city for the occasion. The Arts Council of Indianapolis offered to partner with us to put murals in the airport.
We have construction barricades up throughout the terminal right now as part of our refresh program, so we were trying to figure out a way that we could rewrap those walls and create a much more engaging experience for visitors. SWISH was the perfect opportunity for us to rebrand the whole terminal with this artwork and put up 10 different murals, which will stay up until each concession space is ready to open.
From an art standpoint, what’s next for the airport?
We have a lot of really cool ideas coming up. We’re going to continue to host arts and culture events at the airport into the future and … we’ll be opening a gallery space in [one of the] concourse[s]. We’re also really excited about some other projects, but we’re not quite ready to talk about those yet.
What else does your job entail?
When I’m not working on the art side, I get to work on some really cool marketing projects in the terminal. This includes a video of Mari Evans that will be unveiled this month for National Poetry Month and work on the Kurt Vonnegut piece that’s currently on display.•
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I am still disappointed that the IIA removed what was supposed to be James Wille Faust’s , “permanent” site-specific work, Chrysalis and replaced it with advertising. I am not sure what has happened to this stunning piece, but would love to see it displayed again in a prominent area.
https://stuckattheairport.com/tag/james-wille-faust/