Gatwick launches artistic departure: Gatwick offers 3,000 pounds contract to portray daily life

ART and airports may at first seem odd bedfellows. Unless perhaps it's that well-known art of explaining to passengers why their flight is delayed.

Undeterred by the endless scope for ribaldry at its expense, however, London Gatwick is to appoint Britain's first airport artist in residence. The brief for the person selected, to be pared down to a shortlist of four tomorrow, will be to capture the 'comings and goings' of some of the 20 million passengers who pass through during the busy summer months.

No one is entirely sure how this will be achieved. Only when the artist is chosen will the medium and style become clear. 'They may chose to record the images with a camera, or make sketches they can refer to later,' Suzanne McCulloch, one of the selection panel, said. 'But we may end up with someone who chooses to set up in the concourse with an easel. Or, if it's abstract, perhaps even somebody throwing paint at the canvas.'

As it is, there has been no shortage of applicants for the pounds 3,000, three-month residency, set up with South-east Arts, to begin in late June; 250 inquired and 150 submitted a portfolio.

'The emphasis is very much in selecting someone who'll be able to observe people,' Ms McCulloch said. 'We were not interested in plane spotters in anoraks. We operate the airport, not an airline and aircraft. So our interest is in the people that move through the terminus . . . it's a microcosm of human life. Just about every kind of human activity and emotion can be seen here. Sorrow of parting and the joy of reunions. It's all here.'

The frustration of delay? 'Yes, people keep asking if we're hoping for lots of delays so that the artist will have still subjects . . . the answer is definitely no.'

Just beware when you return from that summer holiday - those multi-coloured beach shorts, sombrero and straw donkey may return to haunt you in the airport gallery next year.