Nashville International Airport (BNA) has installed new terminal art to show off one of America’s cultural capitals. This 140 foot tall digital art installation is designed to tell the Nashville region's stories.

Displaying public art on big screens

The new terminal art in Nashville International Airport’s grand lobby was created by Studio Gentilhomme, a digital art firm from Montreal, and features two panoramic screens, each 70ft wide at 24K combined resolution. The screens will display everything from local beauty spots to sports highlights and more. The idea is to show Nashville off at its largest door to the world.

Scenes that will be displayed include but are not limited to:

• Guitar manufacturing
• A display explaining how whiskey is made.
• Nashville at night, going through the city’s skyline
• Broadway Street, Nashville’s town center thoroughfare
• Sports in Nashville that celebrates the city’s American football, soccer, hockey, baseball, and other sporting teams
• Nature scenes showing the nearby Great Smoky Mountains and many bodies of water

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A sense of identity

Founder and Executive Creative Director of Gentilhomme, Thibaut Duverneix, commented on the installation, saying,

“Gentilhomme shapes experiences that provide a sense of identity to a place by creating and producing beacons of entertainment. For Nashville International Airport, we used a large multimedia canvas to bring Nashville’s vibrant energy to life through a series of playful vignettes. Whether it’s the city’s iconic whiskey distillation or guitar making process, the peaceful and whimsical sketches mesmerize passengers of all demographics in unexpected ways, transforming traditional signage in public spaces into a conduit for immersive storytelling.”

According to the project page, the vision for this project was;

"Under the mantra good times await your return, we brought a sense of identity to the airport by offering travelers a visceral memento of Nashville and its surrounding landmarks to impart a lasting impression of the iconic city. The work will be the cornerstone of the airport’s vision to maintain BNA as a world-class facility and accommodate a record-breaking 23 million expected annual passengers."

With the digital art hanging over the entryway to airport security screening, many visitors passing through the airport could be tempted to return to Nashville, Tennessee.

Art at airports

Although it doesn't seem the most likely place to find works of art, the trend for including artistic pieces in airports is widespread. According to ArtworkArchive.com, public art at airports can serve as a gateway to local culture.

Whether t’s Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s hanging of small airplanes loaned by The Museum of Flight or the display cases showing aviation history at many airports, such as Everett’s Paine Field, or the Gentilhomme displays at Nashville – the artistic expression of creating a sense of place coincides with the fact many communities consider their airport a part of themselves.

But public art can also provide calm. Let’s be honest, not everybody is excited to see and fly on airplanes. As Nancy Volmer, Salt Lake City International Airport's Director of Communication and Marketing explains on ArtworkArchive.com,

Airports can be stressful places for travelers. Art can have a calming effect. For passengers who have layovers or delays, airport art exhibits provide an enjoyable way to spend time learning more about the culture of a community,

There are some other airports with similar displays. One of which in Vienna, Austria, was recently reviewed by Simple Flying.

Do you like or see public art at your local airport/airports? Please let us know in the comments.

Sources: ArtworkArchive.com, Gentilhomme project page