Life at the Airport, Through a Different Lens

Photos by Beth Hollerich

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Blaine Siegel, sporting his self-created uniform of charcoal gray pants and a shirt that reads “AIR PIT,” headed down to baggage claim, where limo drivers hold wipe-off boards and iPads bearing the names of passengers they are picking up.

Siegel’s board had a different message: “Waitin’ here to talk with you.” On another was, “I’m here to listen to you.”

Siegel is Pittsburgh International Airport’s first artist-in-residence, and these days he is busy engaging with passengers, employees and airline staff whenever possible. The wipe-off board is his way of doing things differently.

“One of the roles of an artist is to change the everyday experience to make people look at things differently,” he explained. “If I’m standing there with a wipe-off board, and they read it, they’ll stop and think for a minute. I’m asking people to come out of their shell and talk to me. Some people will.”

PIT is one of about a dozen airports in the world that have hosted an artist in residence.

The approach allows both the artist and the airport to develop projects they couldn’t do on their own, said Sallyann Kluz, director for the Office of Public Art at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.

“It gives the airport team the opportunity to view the creative process as it moves forward and to view their own work through an artist’s len