Have you noticed paintings, sculptures or murals at airports? If you are usually rushing to get to your gate, probably not. After all, many travelers don’t think of airports as art galleries, but in some cases they are.
For decades, art programs at airports around the country and the world have transformed once-unadorned transit hubs into welcoming and relaxing spaces—especially for the benefit of passengers fatigued from long flights or stuck with lengthy layovers. The magic of art offers calm, joy, and inspiration when airline guests need it most.
With world-class collections, airports have become museums in their own right with regular showings and commissions of public art. Whether through temporary or permanent exhibits—and be it large-scale installations, paintings and murals, or creations suspended from ceilings—original works by local artists aim to distract. And because local landmarks and culture are often depicted in these works, they also serve as a preview to the arrival city.
Since 1999, Skytrax, the prestigious London-based consultancy firm, has been conducting research and evaluating airport and airline services around the world (such as passenger lounges, cabin staff, and catering). Its ratings are considered a “global benchmark of airline excellence.” In 2023, it added another category—airport art.
Skytrax’s 2024 ranking of the World’s Best Art in the Airport includes four U.S. cities among the top 10: Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Sacramento—sharing the global limelight with Mumbai, Singapore Changi, Doha Hamad, Amsterdam Schiphol, Vancouver, and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).
The Houston Airport System took the No. 1 spot twice in the award’s first two years. Its uplifting paradise of colors greets tens of millions of passengers who pass through the terminals at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport.
“Skytrax focuses on the passenger experience,” said Alton DuLaney, Curator of Public Art at the Houston Airport System. “Art is a tremendous part of that. Through art, a feeling of culture is created and serves an important function in society.”
Color, DuLaney emphasized, is a universal language.
This summer, passengers at George Bush Airport may be rushing to stand in line at TSA screening to admire the largest hand-blown glass airport installation by internationally renowned American glass artist Dale Chihuly. Hanging high above 17 security lanes, the 80-foot-long “Coastal Prairie Fiore” is made with 537 glass elements inspired by native flora of the Gulf Coast.
When most airports cut art budgets and shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, HAS launched its Artist in Residence program that included performing arts events that kept artists employed. Today, it is among the few—and longest-running—such artist-in-residence programs in the country.
HAS' generous art budget allows DuLaney and his team to pursue their goals for the program, including cultural outreach and collaboration with local institutions and nonprofits. Like Houston’s internationally renowned 38-year-strong Art Car Parade held each spring that benefits the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. Of the 250-plus entries, select “rolling masterpieces” are exhibited at the airport. The 2025 event is April 10-13.
Indeed, public art programs at airports are as unique as their artists.
Los Angeles International Airport’s LAX Art Program also received a world rating, landing in the middle of the top-10 pack.
Since 1990 its temporary and permanent art exhibitions as well as musical and cultural performances have connected guests with L.A.’s human factor through welcoming and provocative works by local and regional artists.
In 2022, a group exhibition, “Out of the Blue,” inside LAX’s Terminal 7, showed for two years. Curator John David O'Brien gathered seven Los Angeles-based artists, giving the show its fitting title with this thought: “In this very place, where people are traveling beyond their normal orbits, there is the potential for one to see or experience something new or astonishing.” Among the artists, Soojung Park’s seemingly straightforward lines inspire such curiosity.
Park paints on both sides of Plexiglas, a medium she discovered 20 years ago when she explored going beyond the traditional canvas. The lines create a “perpetual phenomenon, which has infinite perspectives.” And because Park mixes her own colors, “No color is duplicated.”
In addition to Skytrax reviews, Business Traveler Magazine conducts airport art rankings for its target audience. In 2024, San Francisco International Airport took the top honor as Best Airport in North America.
Launched in 1977, the joint program by the SFO Museum and the San Francisco Arts Commission exhibits permanent and rotating collections (with a unique emphasis on aviation) sharing the dynamic and entertaining culture of the Bay Area.
By default, airport art program collections over the decades have also evolved into cultural and historical archives—accidental museums, one might call them.
Airports are often the first and last memories travelers have of a city. And as art programs receive support from foundations, grants, airport revenue, capital improvement projects, and donations, returns on these investments are immeasurable.
Having extra time at the airport is now a bonus: Check in early to calmly clear security, enjoy the shops, and sip a coffee to the last drop while browsing the art galleries.
