Coming to Grips With Art for the Public’s Sake : The time to bring artists into a public project is when the planning starts--not after the mayor, the architect, the builder and the financier have set in motion a master plan based on quantitative information.

The San Diego Unified Port District is trying to resurrect its troubled, $2.2 million public art program, which began in 1982 but which to date has seen only one work installed. It has hired two consultants to conduct public hearings and develop a master plan. The last of four hearings is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Embarcadero, 1355 N. Harbor Drive.

The Times asked three arts professionals, artists Robert Irwin and David Avalos and art historian Sally Yard, for their thoughts on public arts programs.

With public art, we are talking about a new venue, but we are using old tools. And the tools have a way of altering the decision-making process.

The time to bring artists into a public project is when the planning starts--not after the mayor, the architect, the builder and the financier have set in motion a master plan based on quantitative information. Someone has to be there from the beginning to argue for quality.

The Miami International Airport public art master plan is an interesting case study. The airport is the most complex part of our society. It has a civic responsibility; it’s a doorway to the city. It has a major functional responsibility. And it’s a place of social interface. It operates on all of these levels.

Designing a public art plan for an airport requires a collaboration among artists, architects and engineers. What happens with collaboration is that everyone is thrown into a room to work things out. But its a very complicated marriage; it’s not instant karma. Each person has to know when his task is primary and when it is secondary.

So, in Miami, I took the word art out of the dialogue. Instead, I viewed each role as enriching the experience of the airport user. The engineer enriches the experience of the airport roads by making them really function.

For instance, if I give an engineer a job of constructing a road, he will say build it down the middle. He looks for the most efficient way, because he has not been given more than one criterion. But I might suggest running the road along the river, which enriches the experience more than just putting a couple of statues along the road later. If we can make the road function and still have it wander along the river, we have both enhanced the experience of passing along the road. If the artist does his job well, he not only makes the airport more beautiful, he also makes it work better. And it can be done without necessarily spending additional money.

What many airports do is to put a piece of art at the entrance, where you are trying to figure out what lane to be in to return your rental car. But putting it there just adds to confusion.

In the terminal, however, people have to wait an hour or two for a plane. That is an example of a place where the artist should take the lead to enrich the passengers’ experience.

So in Miami, I used the budget that had been set aside for public art as seed money to bring artists into the early planning of the airport project, rather than tacking their work on afterwards.

But it’s important to choose the right artist for the right job.