art at airports

Fresh art at MSP + Airport libraries

Books,

Fresh art at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

The Arts@MSP program at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) presents to new temporary exhibits.

Purely Textual Map Point, by Alison Price,  is a collection of organic and mineral structures on canvas wity metal leaf, glass, handmade paper and found metal. Look for the display in MSP Terminal 1, near Gat C6 through April 1, 2026.

Chorus, by Alexandra Beaumont, celebrates “the freedom and power of the dance floor,” and is a 12X48-foot artpiece made up of 36 hand-sewn squares of textile collages.

Look for Chorus in Terminal 1, on the Tram East platform through March 1, 2027

Pick up a book at the airport

Last week was National Library Week and a good time to remind travelers that many airports maintain book corners where travelers can leave a book they’ve finished reading and pick up a new one. For free.

The tradition of airport libraries goes back to 1962, when a branch of the Nashville Public Library opened at Nashville International Airport (BNA).

Staffed by a librarian who received an extra $4 in her paycheck to cover airport parking, the Nashville Public Library reading room was the first time a public library was established in a municipal airport.

As a bonus, patrons could check out reproductions of well-known artworks.

These days, airport libraries come in a variety of formats. Here’s a sampling.

Miami International Airport (MIA) has a mini-lending library that holds up to 100 books at a time.

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) has a book exchange center in Terminal A.

And at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library shares space with the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum on the Departures Level of the International Terminal Main Hall.

You’ll also spot Little Free Libraries at many airports.

Here’s a pretty one at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

Let us know when you spot a library at an airport you’re passing through.

Turn travel into poetry at San Diego Int’l Airport

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Passengers traveling through San Diego International Airport (SAN) may have their travel tales turned into poetry.

Now through April 29, the airport’s Spring 2025 Performing Arts Resident, Poets Underground, will be onsite in the terminals at their luggage-inspired stage called The Great Poetic Baggage Exchange.

The artists will be inviting and enticing travelers to engage in conversations and mural paintings around five travel-inspired themes: Adventure, Baggage, Connection, Checkpoint and Rise.

The stories and images gathered at SAN will help the arts residents create poems and other artworks that will be then be featured in three airport performances on May 2, 6, and 8.

Could be fun!

SFO Museum celebrates San Francisco

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Here’s a great reason to plan or be thankful for a long layover at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

The SFO Museum‘s newest exhibition, San Francisco: City of the World, offers travelers a thoughtful, fun and educational look at the iconic city’s colorful history.

Find it post-security in Terminal 2 through July 6, 2025.

A preview of images and information from the exhibit is below.

Content and images courtesy of SFO Museum.

In 1848, gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The following year, more than seven hundred ships arrived in San Francisco.

The Gold Rush transformed the region into a bustling city of approximately twenty-five thousand inhabitants, including thousands of Chinese immigrants who established California’s oldest and largest Chinatown.

Andrew Smith Hallidie (1836–1900) tested the first cable car in 1873 on Clay Street and public service began in September that same year.

By the turn of the twentieth century, San Francisco was known as the “Paris of the West,” until the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires leveled the city.

The resilient metropolis was quickly rebuilt, and during the early 1900s numerous San Francisco landmarks, such as Coit Tower (1933) and the Golden Gate Bridge (1937)—the most photographed bridge in the world—were built. In addition to its natural beauty and historical sites, San Francisco has long served as a meeting ground for diverse groups of people and countercultures, which are also explored throughout the exhibition.

“Made in Miami” film posters on exhibit at MIA Airport

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Love movies?

Then be sure to look for this film-related exhibition the next time you visit Miami International Airport (MIA).

MIA Galleries and Film Miami are presenting a selection of film posters spanning seven decades of motion pictures shot in Miami and surrounding areas.

And Now, Our Feature Presentation (great title for an exhibit about movies, right?) celebrates Miami and the Miami area as both an inspiration for filmmakers and as a popular filming location.

The exhibition is at the Gates D31 Gallery and features 33 Hollywood film posters spanning eight decades of motion pictures shot in Miami-Dade County from 1941 to 2024.

Here’s a flipbook preview of the new exhibition at MIA: And Now Our Feature Presentation: Miami Film Posters, 1941 – 2024.

Check to see if your favorite films or actors are included. You may be surprised.

Bradley International Airport (BDL) gets fresh art

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Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport (BDL) partnered with RiseUP for Arts to add five murals inside the main terminal.

The landscapes and imagery represent New England and Connecticut, the Nutmeg State.

Hartford-based RiseUP for Arts has completed 250 murals throughout Connecticut since 2015. The murals at BDL are by Patrick Ganino, Micaela Levesque and Chris Gann. Take a look.