Art installation at Fresno Yosemite airport is a year-plus behind schedule. What we know

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A highly anticipated art installation at Fresno Yosemite International Airport is well over a year behind its original schedule, and it will likely be months before the four-story mosaic mural is installed on the airport’s parking garage.

Fresno artist Caleb Duarte, a noted artist and sculptor who teaches at Fresno City College and taught art and exhibited his work worldwide, was selected in October 2022 from among 17 artists who submitted proposals.

Duarte’s concept, a mixed-media mosaic entitled “You Have Arrived,” was unveiled to the Fresno City Council in March 2023 with the expectation that the artwork would go up later in the spring of 2023.

But more than a year and a half after the concept was revealed, the drab white wall of the elevator shaft continues to stare blankly across the airport’s main driveway toward the passenger terminal.

Airport spokesperson Vikkie Calderon told The Fresno Bee that unforeseen delays have been the result of preparation work that needs to be done for the elevator wall to accommodate Duarte’s tile mosaic concept, and it also has to be coordinated with Duarte’s schedule.

But, she said, the airport team has been able to visit Duarte’s workshop and see the creation of the artwork as it progresses. “Caleb’s art installation is currently scheduled to begin in spring 2025,” Calderon said.

“The need for special preparation for the wall was not known at the time the artist was selected,” Calderon added. “Having the walls prepared for the artist’s work, weather restrictions for installation, and the artist’s availability to install the work have resulted in a delay in the installation.”

What it represents

Using a combination of painted ceramic relief sculpture, mosaic tiles and painted or cemented granite rocks, Duarte’s design depicts a tall figure with arms representing an abstraction of a tree, along with floating abstract patterns symbolizing flight.

“The figure’s hands visually state, ‘I have arrived; I am from here,’” Duarte wrote in his proposal.

In announcing Duarte’s selection to create the mural, airport administrators proclaimed that “Caleb’s design illustrates an embrace of a painted ceramic figure representing a growing abstract tree with well-grounded roots, reflecting the region’s surrounding mountains and forest.”

The design of Duarte’s piece is reminiscent of the mural it will face on the exterior of the terminal building, Raymond Rice’s 1962 work entitled “Sky and Ground.” That piece, crafted from Venetian glass, is a 128-foot mural The Fresno Bee once described as “an abstract approach to the aeronautical theme.”

But the hard materials planned for Duarte’s installation – each of which could pose a danger if they become detached and fall to the sidewalk below – make the wall preparation an important aspect of the installation. That’s something airport marketing manager Claudia Arguelles-Miller told the Fresno City Council in March 2023 when Duarte’s concept was unveiled.

“I wish I could say we are (done) and it’s ready to go, but there are a lot of hurdles we’ve had to jump through,” Arguelles-Miller said at that time. The latest one … is we have to make sure that the installation process is correct, that we do all the correct permitting and make sure that it’s safe, that no tile is going to fall and hurt somebody.”

“That will, to a certain extent, determine how many tiles we can use in the mosaic,” she added.

The city-owned airport’s original budget for the piece was $35,000, but Airports Director Henry Thompson said various factors had combined to drive the actual cost to closer to $50,000 by the time the concept was presented to the City Council last year.