Arts, Campus News, College of Arts & Sciences, Faculty And Staff, Press Releases, Research - Monday, April 30, 2012 12:23 pm

UNCG Art Professor Gets San Diego Airport Commission

Sheryl Oring, an art faculty member at UNCG, has been selected by the Art Committee of the San Diego International Airport for a public art commission.

During May, Oring will complete a residency to research potential sites within the airport’s new terminal. She will develop a proposal for creation and installation of site-specific art that will “stimulate an intentional, ongoing dialogue with the local and traveling communities.”

Oring was awarded the commission through a competitive process associated with Green Build, which is the $1 billion, 10-gate expansion due for completion in 2013, and is the largest improvement project in the airport’s history.

The selection panel noted that Oring’s work “relies heavily on engaging broad-based audiences through the facilitation of public discourse on political, social, historical and personal subjects.” Additionally, the panel “found her work to be very inclusive and community-driven. They appreciated her ability to create discourse in a way that is non-threatening.”

Oring, an assistant professor in the UNCG Department of Art, has created art for public spaces that include Bryant Park, the Brooklyn Museum and the Eldridge Street Project, all in New York City; the Boston Public Library; the Jewish Museum Berlin; the New Children’s Museum in San Diego; and the 01SJ Biennial in San Jose, Calif. She has received a Creative Capital grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and a College Art Association Professional-Development Fellowship.

Two of her projects have drawn national attention. Most recently, she went to New York City’s Bryant Park on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center to record peoples’ recollections of the catastrophic event for “Collective Memory.” Her “I Wish to Say” project allowed people to speak their minds on typed postcards that were sent to the the President, and earned her the “Person of the Week” award by ABC’s World News Tonight.