Unexpected item in the baggage area: How and why airports are being turned into art galleries

Are you ready for your flight? Got your passport and your boarding pass? Are your bags the right weight? Maybe you should check for the tenth time that your passport is still there…

There’s no denying flying is stressful, and airports rarely help matters. Purely functional spaces dominated by queue after queue, even the most frequent traveller can’t guess if it’s going to be a ‘take out your liquids, your electronics, and remove your shoes’ day or a ‘keep everything in your bag, you’re holding up the line, idiot’ day.

Increasingly, though, airports are turning to a rather novel solution to make the experience more pleasant: Adding art into the mix.

While there are aesthetic purposes behind the move – anything beats a blank wall, and for the directionally challenged, these pieces double as essential wayfinding tools when stress takes over – the psychology backs up the idea, too.

Dr Aleksandra (Sasha) Igdalova, a postdoctoral psychology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who focuses on how we engage with art, told Wanderlust, “There’s a lot of anxiety around flying: being around so many people, missing their flight, or dying on it.

“The effects of viewing artworks can range from decreasing ill-being, reducing stress or reducing anxiety, to increasing positive attributes of well-being.”

Every little helps, and so bland white halls at airports around the globe are being transformed into places of beauty, places of connection, and places of peace (something we all need while every single person in the queue in front of us appears to be experiencing their first day on earth).

As Jason Carter-Ryan, creator of art installations at Canada’s Calgary International Airport, added, “Art irons out the edge of the travel experience, the sharp corners of the stress involved in getting on a steel tube that shoots through the air.”

Aside from just soothing travellers, the works featured often come from local artists, and so airports can also act as cultural ambassadors by giving visitors a window into the heart of a city or country.

Dr Igdalova noted, “Art can help people feel more socially connected if they’re viewing artworks with other people, or increase their mood, or make them feel like their life has more meaning.

“Public art also serves the purpose of getting people who are not exposed or don’t believe that they should be around art or know anything about it, to have an experience with an artwork.”

Somewhat of a gateside drug, first-time art viewers may then feel more inclined to seek out more cultural experiences landside, too.

This trend is redefining airports as more than just gateways, but as destinations in their own right. Want to experience it for yourself? Here are six airports leading the way on this trend.

Nowhere is this trend more evident than in Singapore’s Changi Airport, where art is woven into the foundations of the building.

A wide array of art installations feature throughout the airport, from painted murals to kinetic art installations.

The Petalclouds sculpture serves up art to passengers upon entry into Terminal 4, where an array of six ‘clouds’ made of 16 petal-shaped frames hangs above the terminal’s central gallery.

Petalclouds forms a synchronised light and music display, designed to relieve travel stress, whose design is drawn from Singapore’s national flower – the orchid.

Another live installation is the Kinetic Rain, a sculpture made up of over 1,000 copper-plated droplets that move in unison to form a variety of shapes, including planes and dragons.

The piece is the successor to Terminal 1’s previous centrepiece, the old mylar cord fountain, and its display is visible on the Level 2 Public Area.

The airport also pays its respects to Singapore’s traditions, with a 37-metre-long mural depicting a street lined with food sellers by Singaporean artist Yip Yew Chong, with the mural meant to highlight how Singapore’s past still plays a fundamental role in its present and future.

More information: changiairport.com

Read next: Singapore Airlines: Reflecting the country itself, the airline is traditional yet modern, and proud of its many cultures

Visitors to Calgary Airport are welcomed at 13 gates by depictions of Alberta’s dramatic mountain landscapes, as well as the province’s wildlife, with a “dash of whimsy and fun and colour”.

From a wolf howling at the moon to two figures in a canoe crossing the lake below Angel Mountain, these installations serve travellers with an artistic starter to the feast of the senses that Canada offers them.

These pieces were brought to life in 2015 by Indigenous artist Jason Carter-Ryan from the Little Red River Cree Nation.

The artist told Wanderlust, “I hope the art provides a moment of reprieve from the inner self or looking down into one’s phone, and looking up and being drawn to colour, form and beauty.

“The work reflects both Canada and my own Cree identity – the natural Indigenous landscape of Canada is integral to Canada’s vision of itself.”

In addition to the welcoming gate installations, four additional installations hang throughout the airport complex, providing further windows into Canada’s heart.

More information: carter-ryan.com / yyc.com

Read next: Off-season Alberta: Exploring local and Métis culture without the crowds

Colorado’s Denver Airport is home to a wide array of powerful and almost eerie art installations.

Over US$7 million in public art was approved for the construction of the airport, and murals and statues feature heavily throughout the site.

The star of the show is the 32-foot-high fibreglass blue stallion with burning red eyes that rears defiantly over the road into the airport. The horse’s official title is ‘Mustang’, but it has earned the nickname ‘Blucifer’ from locals for its seemingly demonic appearance.

Another famous piece is the double mural entitled Children of the World Dream of Peace which expresses the artist’s desire for an end to war.

The left-hand side of the mural features children of nations in conflict, including India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, and Russia and the US, standing united over the body of a soldier in a gas mask.

Bisected by a doorway, the right-hand side of the mural reflects a world which continues on the march to war, with the soldier in the left-hand mural now standing over the murdered dove of peace with a rifle and sword.

We’re not sure how that promotes feelings of peace before you fly, but it will certainly give you something to think about other than your impending flight.

More information: flydenver.com

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San Francisco International Airport’s public art programme offers travellers and residents a permanent collection of over 165 paintings, sculptures, mosaics and environmental works.

These works reflect artists of local, national and international renown, and include Janet Echelman’s ceiling installation Every Beating Second.

San Francisco was one of the earliest adopters of the artistic trend, launching The Art Program in 1977 with the construction of Terminal 3.

San Francisco’s art ordinance provides for an enrichment allocation equivalent to 2% of the construction cost of a new or renovated civic structure.

The airport is home to one of the world’s only accredited museums within a commercial airport, the SFO Museum, which houses rotating exhibitions covering topics from aviation history to contemporary art.

More information: sfartscommission.org

The International Departures Hall at iGA Istanbul Airport is alive with art, unveiling a new solo art exhibition series in June 2025, Encounter with Fahrelnissa Zeid.

This adds to the existing installations at the iGA Istanbul Airport Museum, which features Treasures of Türkiye: Faces of the Throne, a display of 316 different items from 29 museums, showcasing the history of Türkiye.

The display features the ‘Kadesh Treaty’, the first peace treaty in the history of humanity, concluded between the Egyptian Empire and the Hittite Empire over 3000 years ago.

Istanbul iGA Airport’s CEO Selahattin Bilgen, told Wanderlust, “Our museum hosts original and historical artefacts, with which we have an exchange agreement with all the museums around the country.

“Even if you are a transfer passenger and not visiting Türkiye, you have the option to see some part of it or have some flavour of the country.”

The airport even has its own art executive committee, running open competitions for local and international artists, providing opportunities for talented new artists.

Workshops and performances are also held regularly in the airport, broadening the array of the airport’s artistic offerings.

More information: igaart.istanbul

Hamad International Airport in Doha teems with art installations from local and international artists, providing travellers with a unique pre-flight experience.

You’ll no doubt recognise Urs Fischer’s Lamp Bear, which dominates the main concourse of the airport before you head off to your gate, but the art experience begins long before that.

Outside the main doors, another horse sculpture welcomes visitors, although less demonic and more abstract than the creature in Denver.

Created by Qatari artist Ali Hassan Al Jaber, the sculpture blends traditional Arabic calligraphy with artistic abstraction to capture the horseback travel of the Bedouins.

Continuing in the animal theme, perched facing the departure hall sits Tom Claassen’s huge golden falcon, keeping a watchful eye over airport proceedings.

A herd of his oryx runs in formation through the departures hall, accompanying travellers on their rush to the gate.

For those travelling with children, Hamad International blends art with play in the form of eight interactive bronze cartoon-figure sculptures, complete with ladders and slides to help young flyers expend their energy before take-off.

More information: qm.org.qa

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