Miami International Airport

Visit an Airport Museum on Int’l Museum Day

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New England Air Museum adjacent to Bradley International Airport (BDL)

May 18 is International Museum Day, which gives us an excuse to talk about some of the great museums in and adjacent to airports around the country.

Having a museum or museum program in an airport just makes so much sense. Millions of people pass through airports each year. Many passengers have plenty of downtime before their flights. And art or history exhibits in airports can connect passengers with a place, inspire them, educate them, or create those sought after moments of suprise and delight.

Here are a handful of airport museums and museum programs to look for on your next trip. Let us know if we missed your favorite.

Phoenix Airport Museum

The Phoenix Airport Museum at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) is one of the oldest and largest airport art program in the country. You’ll find permanent artwork and temporary exhibitions throughout the sprawling airport facilities, including in the rental car center and at the Sky Train stations.

SFO Museum

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is accredited by the American Alliance of Museum (AAM). In addition to permanent public art and more than a dozen temporary exhibitions at a time, the museum maintains a video arts program , student art programs, and photography galleries.

While the airport’s wonderful Aviation Museum & Library is currently closed for renovations, temporary exhibitions throughout the terminals currently celebrate everything from Early Women Aviators and their Aircraft to Victorian Wallpaper.

Julia Clark (1880–1912) at the controls of a Curtiss biplane  c. 1912. Courtesy SFO Museum

Mitchell Gallery of Flight at MKE

The free Mitchell Gallery of Flight at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE) is located pre-security and open 24 hours a day. Exhibits include airplane models, aviation paintings, propellers, a scale model of the Milwaukee airport terminal as it looked in 1941, and sections dedicated to famous Wisconsinites in aviation history such as astronaut James Lovell and General Billy Mitchell, known as ‘the father of the U.S. Air Force.

You’ll find aviation-themed history exhibits and full-fledged aviation museums in and adjacent to many other airports too.

Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) in South Carolina has a 350-square-foot museum in its Grand Hall. The Frontiers of Flight Museum is on the southeast corner of Dallas Love Field Airport. And the New England Air Museum is adjacent to Bradley International Airport (BDL), in Connecticut.

And there are lots more.

Courtesy New England Air Museum

More airport museums and museum programs not to miss

Take a few moments to look around next time you’re at an airport and it’s a very good chance you’ll spot art and history exhibits you may have rushed by in the past. Curators at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), New York’s Albany International Airport (ALB), Denver International Airport (DEN), Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Miami International Airport (MIA), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), and many others do a great job filling the terminals and concourses with art and exhibits you’ll enjoy.

Quest by Bert L. Long, Jr

Fresh art at Miami International Airport

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(Kristi Bettendorf, Lignum vitae, Guaiacum sanctum, and Honeybee, Apis mellifera, Courtesy of the artist.)
 

Pollinators art exhibition at MIA celebrates South Florida plants

Pollinators, the newest art exhibition at Miami International Airport, features watercolor and mixed media works that give a close-up view of plants from South Florida and their animal and insect pollinators.

Focusing on these complex natural relationships, members of the Tropical Botanic Artists Collective illustrated birds, butterflies, moths, bees, wasps – even aquatic zooplankton – with the plants they pollinate. The artists in Pollinators worked in collaboration with Biscayne National Park in Florida.

(Donna Torres, Wild Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, and Western or European Honeybee, Apis mellifera, 2018, Courtesy of the artist.)

Find the Pollinators exhibition on Concourse E pre-security area on the arrivals level near Door 11.

Celebrities welcome you to Miami Int’l Airport

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Here’s another sign that the world of travel is moving back towards normal:

Miami International Airport (MIA) is bringing back celebrity welcome messages to its public address system.

The Voices of MIA program launched in 2019 and featured the voices of local celebrities including Miami Heat stars Alonzo Mourning and Udonis Haslem, celebrity chef Adrianne Calvo, Grammy-winning producer Emilio Estefan and telenovela star Jencarlos Canela.

The refreshed 2021 series of celebrity welcome messages includes rapper and singer Flo Rida; actor, singer and composer Carlos Ponce; celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein; rapper and TV personality Trina; and celebrity chef and TV personality Chef PepĂ­n. Listen for the messages on MIA’s address system around the clock on a rotating basis.

And if you’re traveling through Miami International Airport, or have friends or family meeting you there or dropping you off, keep in mind this is one of the airports hosting a free COVID-19 vaccination site through July 31.

MIA’s Military Hospitality Lounge recently reopened as well.

Fresh art at Miami Int’l Airport

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Brian Reedy, UFO over Bombay, 2020

UFOs have been in the news lately. So we are pleased to see a piece of art featuring a UFO included in a new exhibition at Miami International Airport.

Key West and Other Unusual Places includes printed works by Miami-based visual artists and printmakers Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin.

Reedy has a fascination with the supernatural and Asian architecture. So the work above, UFO over Bombay, makes sense.

Tom Virgin’s work reflects his travels across the United States.

Tom Virgin, Big Shark (from Escape Series), 

The exhibit will be on display in the The Eye Has to Travel Gallery near Gate D29 until October, 2021.

Stuck at The Airport: Tuesday Tidbits

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Still not vaccinated? MIA Airport can help

A COVID-19 vaccination site at Miami International Airport will be providing free one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to all individuals 18 and older daily through June 18, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for June 8-9. Walk-ups are accepted with no appointment or pre-registration necessary.

The vaccination site is located at MIA’s Concourse D, 4th Floor Auditorium, upstairs from Door 1.

Fresh exhibits at SFO Airport, courtesy SFO Museum

United Air Lines uniform  1973
Designed by Jean Louis (1907–97)

New spaces at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) means more places for the SFO Museum to put art and exhibitions.

The inaugural exhibition in the new Harvey Milk Terminal 1 gallery at SFO features bright an colorful flight attendant uniforms from the past from the 1960s to 1970s.

Braniff International Airways “727 Braniff Place Blue Pant Collection” uniform  1972
Designed by Emilio Pucci (1914–92)
Braniff International Airways “Classic Collection” uniform  1968
Designed by Emilio Pucci (1914–92)

Look for Flight Patterns: Airline Uniforms from 1960-1970s post-security in SFO Terminal 1 through mid-March 2022.

SFO Museum also just launched a next exhibition titled Stoneware Stories in the pre-security area of the International Terminal on the Departures Level. This exhibition will be on view through January 23, 2022. 

Pieces on exhibis include antebellum alkaline-glazed stoneware made by Thomas Chandler, David Drake, Collin Rhodes Factory, and other Edgefield District pottery manufacturers from South Carolina.

(Photos courtesy SFO Museum)