JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT : Cultural Programs Urged for Terminal

Travelers at John Wayne Airport would be entertained by music, song and dance presentations and by changing art exhibitions if a program recommended Tuesday by a task force is approved.

The program “would enhance Orange County’s image as a unique showcase of varied cultural interests” and make the airport “a special jewel which typifies our county as an enjoyable destination and a welcomed point of return,” wrote the John Wayne Airport Task Force in its final recommendations, made Tuesday at the County Hall of Administration.

The new airport terminal is slated to open April 1. The task force, a 12-member panel appointed in March by the County Board of Supervisors, is scheduled to present these recommendations on Oct. 31 for examination and possible revision by the supervisors.

The ongoing arts program would include four exhibits a year of modern, traditional, ethnic and children’s art created in a wide variety of media; displays about Orange County’s aviation history, and the acquisition of two artworks annually for a permanent collection, according to task force recommendations.

Professional curators for each of the four exhibits, periodic classical and popular music, dance and theater performances and literary readings also were recommended, as was a five-member commission to run the program.

Because the program would begin in the middle of a fiscal year, the task force recommended an initial budget of $70,000. This would cover costs of an inaugural exhibit of work by Orange County artists slated to coincide with the terminal’s “Grand Opening”; hiring of an interim director to direct the commission, and the purchase of one artwork.

Funding for this partial-year budget would come from the airport “enterprise fund,” which is generated from fees charged airlines, rental car companies and other airport users.

A full-year budget for future years of $250,000 has been suggested--not formally recommended--by the task force as a sample spending plan only. Its revenues would come largely from the airport enterprise fund but also from private donations to beef up an acquisitions allowance.

The program could mean a slight increase to enterprise fund rates, said Janice Mittermeier, assistant airport manager. Any increase would be “fairly nominal,” Mittermeier said. “But I think it’s a good program and one the citizens of Orange County want.

The recommended budgets are “consistent” with such programs at other West Coast airports, the report said.

The task force recommendations were made after surveys of airport users and officials at arts organizations throughout Orange County showed that “ . . . the use and placement of art of all kinds in and around the new airport terminal is a much desired endeavor. . . .”