PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 85 Silent and still is something SFO Museum is not. At San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 2 is alive with the whir of rolling luggage and the constant murmur and flow of people. Some stop to appreciate a museum display, resting their arms on suitcase handles. Others hitch up their backpack straps and press on to the nearby bookstore or Air Canada lounge. One harried traveler rushes by in a whirlwind of wheels and heels in a desperate bid to make her plane. “Over 52 million passengers from all over the world travel through annually,” says Nicole Mullen as she halts before San Francisco: City of the World, one of the museum’s many galleries scattered throughout the airport. “Our goal is to do shows that can delight and engage a vast public audience and can be accessible to a lot of people.” Nicole, the curator in charge of exhibitions, strikes a whimsical figure in a floral-print dress and librarian-chic glasses. She wears a lobster broach on her coat and an octopus bracelet clasped around her wrist. SFO Museum got its start in 1980 as a way to humanize the airport and showcase the rich culture of the Bay Area, Nicole explains. Today, it’s grown to 25 locations throughout SFO with exhibits ranging from popular culture, design and history to technology, ethnography, folk art, natural history and beyond. It also includes photography galleries and the Aviation Museum and Library. “There's always something new and compelling to work on,” she says. No plane ticket? No problem. Your passport to learning doesn’t require a boarding pass. A handful of exhibits are located in publicly accessible presecurity areas, while the ones beyond a checkpoint can be accessed through prior arrangement with SFO Museum.
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