San Francisco Airport Museums Presents Architectural Models from the Musée Antoine Brun

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Kandace Bender
Deputy Airport Director Communications and Marketing
(650) 821-5019
SF-02-59

San Francisco Airport Museums Presents Architectural Models from the Musée Antoine Brun
Exhibition Featuring Nineteenth Century Models of Great Buildings at SFO

SAN FRANCISCO -- A new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport allows visitors to view many of the great buildings of the world without leaving the terminals. On display through February 2003, Architectural Models from the Musée Antoine Brun, Sainte-Consorce, France, presents 51 models of significant structures ranging from the White House to the Eiffel Tower.

The models, made of wood, were created by master carver Antoine Brun during the late nineteenth century. Brun, who belonged to a prominent landowning family in SainteConsorce, France, began his model-making career with a relief carving of nearby Lyon, France. He soon went on to carve well-known buildings in the Rhône, and later produced models of structures located abroad.

Brun himself never traveled, and while not much is known about his sources, it is suspected that he probably referred to postcards and illustrated periodicals to gain knowledge of his distant subjects. Reproductions of nineteenth-century photographs, prints and paintings similar to those likely used by Brun accompany almost every model included in the exhibition.

The exhibition is located in Gallery G-2, International North Cases, on the Ticketing/Departures Level of the International Terminal at SFO. The exhibition is free of charge and accessible to all members of the public twenty-four hours a day.

San Francisco Airport Museums

The San Francisco Airport Museums program was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purposes of humanizing the Airport environment, providing visibility for the unique cultural life of San Francisco, and providing educational services for the traveling public. Today, the San Francisco Airport Museums features twenty-one galleries throughout the Airport terminals displaying a rotating schedule of art, history, science, and cultural exhibitions. A permanent collection dedicated to the history of commercial aviation is located in the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum.

For more information about the San Francisco Airport Museums, please contact Jane Sullivan at (650) 821-5123.

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