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\u201cWhen I came to L.A. from Siberia, I loved the diversity of flora, especially native desert plants that use little water for much of the year,\u201d Wolek said.<\/p>\n
Fascinated with the sculptural beauty of cactuses and succulents, she started her own garden at home, also intrigued by the fact that these plants would never survive a Siberian winter. Unlike humans, plants are often rooted to the particular climate their ancestors adapted to, Wolek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notion of a suitcase from [a] left-behind place [as] a keeper of its memories and sentiments, and a rooted local plant in a suitcase, represents a willingness to respect, participate and enjoy local culture and surroundings,\u201d Wolek said. \u201cIn other words, adopt the native soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Announced in October, \u201cCSULB SOARS @ LGB\u201d (SOAR stands for School of Art Review) is a community engagement effort organized by the university\u2019s school of art and the airport, where college students and recent graduates can show their work to those flying in and out of the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our students and recent alumni, this project was an opportunity to share a refined public art proposal with an actual client,\u201d said Michael Nannery, a local artist who helped coordinate the project for the School of Art.<\/p>\n
Out of seven proposals reviewed by the airport, four were selected to be displayed. LGB also provided honorariums to the artists to help with covering the cost of labor and materials, according to Nannery.<\/p>\n On view for six months in the public plaza between the terminal and the concourse, \u201cThe Mountain\u201d by MFA sculpture alumni\u00a0Manny Krakowski<\/a> and \u201cLuggage for native soil\u201d by Wolek<\/a> will be up through the rest of the year, with \u201cDrifting\u201d by BFA metals student\u00a0Jojo Solo<\/a> and \u201cCollection\u201d by MFA ceramics student\u00a0Amy Williams<\/a> to be displayed in early 2019.<\/p>\n On showing at LGB, Wolek commented on the benefit of being able to display work where a wider variety of people will be able to see it, versus established art institutions which often attract viewers already connected to the art world in some way.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an airport, everyone who walks by can notice the artwork\u2019s existence and perhaps give some attention, if they have time or desire,\u201d Wolek said.<\/p>\n On envisioning an even more interactive project for an airport venue in the future, she continued, \u201cThe only challenge is to plan it around fast-moving viewers. You don\u2019t want to take much of their time, but you don\u2019t want them to miss the work either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Holiday travelers shuffling through the airport can catch a glimpse of what the city\u2019s vibrant arts community has to offer now and through early next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":65896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[224],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-long-beach-airport","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/LGBSOAR-970x646.jpg\")