A pending decision about whether or not to remove two artworks from the city of Austin’s collection, which would likely result in their destruction, raised broader questions about the city’s capacity to be a reliable art steward for the Art in Public Places panel on Nov. 2.
The panel, consisting of volunteer visual arts professionals appointed by the Austin Arts Commission, voted to recommend against deaccessioning the pieces, citing a lack of documentation proving that Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and AIPP city staff exhausted options to relocate the artworks and consider them in the construction planning process. The group’s recommendation will go to the Arts Commission on Nov. 16, which will give its informed recommendation, in turn, to City Council on Nov. 19.
Leaf, Pod & Samara and Uplifted Ground are both located in areas that will be impacted by construction at the airport beginning in early 2027. AUS Chief Operating Officer Towanda Cordon told the panel that federal regulations prohibit the airport from financing the relocation of either piece beyond the airport grounds and that, given the ongoing construction, AUS cannot store either outdoor sculpture for future placement within the airfield’s 4,242 acres – “effectively chaining [them] to the grounds under the shadow [of] a wrecking ball and a countdown clock,” in the words of panel Vice Chair Lindsey Millikan.
John Christensen, the artist who created Leaf, Pod & Samara, three abstracted concrete forms installed outside baggage claim under commission from the airport in 1999, told the panel he cannot afford to deinstall and remove the pieces on his own. Four- to five-foot-deep concrete pedestals secure each piece and, given the surrounding structures, maneuvering a crane capable of lifting the works would be close to prohibitively expensive and inconvenient, according to Constance White, guest services manager at AUS. Christensen has offered to create smaller, scaled renditions of the works for the airport, which would need to be the subject of a new contract following the deaccession of the initial commissioned pieces.
Uplifted Ground was commissioned by the city and airport from renowned land artist Michael Singer in 2014. Singer passed away in 2024, but representatives from his foundation relayed that they also cannot bear the financial burden of relocating the commissioned work, though they are willing to assist with design and planning at no cost to the city.
In its current state, the work is an integral part of the suspended structure between the Red Garage and the main terminal. The installation divides the walkway with carefully arranged elements of limestone, bronze, LED lighting, steel cables, and tension springs arranged to mirror aerial views of Texas, play with shadow and light forms, and look to more puzzled viewers like construction in a state of enchantment.
At the time of the commission, the airport was facing an expensive reconstruction of the passageway. Singer worked to “create a cohesive and continuous work of art at the mid-span of the structure. This keeps pedestrians closer to the columns, where sufficient structural capacity exists without modifications and added costs,” he told the Statesman in 2017.
Singer was well aware that future construction in the area was inevitable. Jason Bregman, director of the Michael Singer Foundation, said the artist made sure pieces of the work were modular and could be relocated, even going so far as to reimagine the lengthy horizontal layout as a vertical piece instead. Bregman presented renderings in this spirit to the AIPP panel on Monday night. City staff and airport representatives did not confirm whether a vertical reconfiguration had been previously taken into consideration when ruling out relocating Uplifted Ground.
The foundation spent a year in 2024 working with AIPP staff to design a reconfiguration outside of the Airport Career and Development Center, which was ultimately deemed not viable, according to Jaime Castillo, program manager at AIPP. The Singer Foundation, and members of the AIPP panel, called for a legal reevaluation of the FAA’s revenue diversion regulations. In a letter presented Monday, Bregman posited that the decision to demolish the work would reduce its value to “zero or possibly negative,” potentially therefore changing its legal status and opening the door for relocation to another public site “as it would be a cost savings to the Airport through the avoidance of demolition and disposal.”
“We can’t be taking ourselves seriously if we’re talking about new commissions when we’re not taking care of the items in our collection currently.”
Art in Public Places Vice Chair Lindsey Millikan
White, who has overseen arts at the airport through the creation of the Office of Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment, maintains that city and airport staff have “searched high and low” for a place to relocate Uplifted Ground, but that when the airlines who are funding the expansion decided to extend their financial backing to the terminal’s entire footprint, some landscape opportunities for locating the artwork dried up. “I have asked all the questions, I have walked the airport sites, and I’ve talked to planners and our executives,” White told the panel in October. “I was told we just don’t have any space and the conversation went above my head from there.”
Discussion about the deaccession began in earnest at a special meeting called on Oct. 14. Panel members declined to vote on that occasion, asking for more evidence proving all viable relocation options had been exhausted and financial quotes of the cost the city would incur to move or demolish the pieces, the latter of which Castillo said they were unable to obtain due to bureaucratic restrictions.
“We can’t be taking ourselves seriously if we’re talking about new commissions when we’re not taking care of the items in our collection currently,” Millikan said at the October meeting. ACME is currently working with City Council and AIPP on 23 new art contracts for the expanded airport, some of which, like the recently installed Convergence / Austin, are also designed to be both longstanding and site-specific. “I know deaccession is something that we should consider when something is going into disrepair, but this is due to development, and part of that development plan should’ve been about the movability of these [pieces].”
“More often now, these deaccessions are coming up when there is nothing formally wrong with the work, and they’re happening on shorter and shorter timelines because we have such development happening in the city,” echoed Heidi Schmalbach, a panel member and longtime arts advocate.
“At both hearings, the AIPP panel spent hours in thoughtful discussions, really questioning why the Airport is attempting to discard millions of dollars in artwork through a rushed process,” Bregman wrote to the Chronicle Tuesday morning. While the panel may have tough questions and recommendations, the future of the artworks remains up in the air, as Castillo reminded them that “actual conservatorship falls on staff.”
This article appears in November 6 • 2026.
