Most of the time, riding an airport escalator gets you from point A to point B while offering a break from hauling suitcases or a chance to triple-check your airline ticket.
But if you’re riding the escalator up into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s bright, newly renovated N Concourse, you might find yourself craning your neck like you’re in a forest or a cathedral, gazing upward until you alight under the spreading roots of an old-growth cedar.
Seattle-based artist John Grade conjures this in “Boundary,” a massive sculpture of salvaged Alaskan yellow cedar cantilevering 25-feet out from the wall, its blonde-wood framework stretching more than 40 feet up toward the ceiling.
“We’re the busiest airport in the U.S. right now for public art,” said Tommy Gregory, public art program manager and curator at Port of Seattle, explaining that Sea-Tac currently has more than 20 active art commissions in process and is on track to invest more than $20 million in public art by mid-2026, in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup in June and July.
In the next few years, those new commissions will join nearly 300 installations, sculptures and paintings that comprise the airport’s current art collection, totaling an estimated value of more than $40 million.
Which is all to say: There’s a lot of art to take in, and everywhere you look you’re likely to find something beautiful or intriguing, or even just a splash of color in a frustrating travel day.
As you (ideally) give yourself extra time to catch your flights this holiday season, take advantage of those additional airport minutes to appreciate some of the impressive artworks on display.
But first, a little history
Frank Stella’s painting “York Factory A,” a seminal abstract work of interlocking pastel bands that today hangs in Concourse A, was purchased in 1972 from New York City’s Leo Castelli Gallery for around $25,000, Gregory said. (A Stella work coming up for auction at Christie’s is estimated to sell for between $5 and $7 million.)
Sea-Tac first began acquiring art in 1968 and began collecting in earnest in the 1970s, Gregory said.
“I’ve seen old handwritten letters to the aviation directors saying like, ‘I can’t believe we’re spending that much on a painting!’” he said, of the Stella acquisition. “And it was a great return on investment, to say the least. But it’s not only about that, it’s also about being cultural leaders and forward-thinkers about what public art can be in airports.”
In 2000 the Port solidified a funding policy that requires 1% of the budget for every capital improvement project to go toward public art. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, that amount was cut to half a percent and stagnated there for a while, Gregory said, but after he joined the staff in 2018, he successfully lobbied the Port to reinstate the 1%.
Curating art for an airport has unique challenges. Curators have to consider how travelers may want to interact with an artwork — and they always will, even if they’re not supposed to. These stewards must also think about how the installed art’s environment may eventually change, as airports seem to be constantly under construction.
“My curatorial lens is always thinking about, how do you protect it?” Gregory said. “And you have to think about durability.”
Before security
Peek up onto the mezzanine above security checkpoint 1 and you’ll spot another early acquisition, Louise Nevelson’s dark, moody, mixed-media sculpture “Night Flight #1.” Turn your head to the right and there’s Francis Celentano’s 1972 “Spectrum Delta II,” a massive, eye-bending mural in stripes of yellows and pinks. This organized explosion of color now looms above the terminal.
Both were relocated somewhat recently, Gregory said, because Nevelson’s piece contains a flat surface that was, it turns out, very tempting for use as a shelf by the general public, and the Celentano, which used to be hung at ground level, was easily bumped by bags and leaned on by travelers. Now, they can be safely and beautifully enjoyed as art pieces, rather than mistaken for furniture.
N Concourse
Near “Boundary” in North Terminal, along with the standard trappings of a modern airport — digital signage, fast food joints — more organic forms appear. Turn to your right under John Grade’s “Boundary” and an exquisitely cast bronze horse designed to look made of driftwood, Deborah Butterfield’s “Blackleaf,” may stop you in your tracks. Turn left and keep your eyes peeled upward and you’ll spot Kirsta Birnbaum’s “Canopy,” a 37-foot installation under an elevated walkway, using preserved plant elements as the backdrop and marine-grade plywood to represent the topography of our region.
Nearby, “Cathedral,” by Canadian artist duo Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew, wraps a glass elevator shaft in warm yellow silhouettes of trees while a fallen log, cast in bronze, lies on the ground near its base. On a recent visit, two little girls wobbled their way along the log, like a balance beam — because the public will always interact whether or not they’re supposed to.
With the opening of the renovated N Concourse in 2021 and a new, 450,000-square-foot international arrivals facility that opened in 20, Sea-Tac now welcomes more than 50 million visitors each year, and that’s one heck of a captive audience.
“Which is not to say that they’re all coming here for art, obviously,” Gregory said. “But they’re going to be feeling it, or they’re going to stumble upon it, or they’re going to take a picture and it might be in the backdrop. For the most part, the people I feel get the most out of it are little kids, which is really fun — I think [encountering art] creates better problem-solvers and independent thinkers.”
A Concourse
Walking through a light-filled, elbow bend of A Concourse, suddenly the floor shifts to milled steel while above your head, fiberglass clouds are suspended from the ceiling and similarly-shaped cast iron orbs occupy a wedge-shaped metal platform in the corner. Peter Shelton’s “cloudsandclunkers,” as this large-scale work is called, offers a visual break in the monotonous hallways of airports, and an appealing place to sit.
This stretch of the airport also offers neon works old and new: first, Jonn Geise’s “Infinity Column” from 1973, in a palette of reds, oranges, and greens and simple shapes that seem to repeat on, well, infinitely. Further on, find Dan Friday’s 2024 neon piece “Cuomo Kulshan (Mt. Baker and Bear)” a delightful, bright surprise, its title subject tailor-made for a Cascadia location, tucked into an alcove near a restroom.
All the way at the end of A Concourse, turn your gaze upward and you’ll be rewarded with Cappy Thompson’s “I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals,” a luminous dreamscape of enameled colors creeping its way up the immense windows — a particular gift in evening light.
B & C Concourses
If you, like many kids have since the early ’90s, follow Daniel and Judith Caldwell’s delightful installation “The Flying Fish,” a fleet of some 300 bronze salmon inlaid in an undulating stream down the terrazzo floor of B Concourse, you’ll find your way to a brand-new addition to the airport’s art collection.
Tucked inside a women’s bathroom across from gate B3 and just unveiled in September, MiNHi England’s sublime, shimmery pieces “Tumbled by the Sea” and “Echoes of the Sound” greet you upon entrance and exit. The Seattle-based glass artist (who was a finalist on the third season of the Netflix reality show “Blown Away”) designed the two pieces to complement one another: on one wall, an expanse of bubbles of ladle-cast glass mirrored in purples, blues and greens; on the other, the piece, Gregory explained, is designed like an infinity mirror, filled with reflective orbs that create the illusion that it reflects on forever.
Restrooms might not feel like prime art real estate, but construction is a great opportunity to find new spaces for art. As part of Sea-Tac’s massive restroom renovation project, which began in 2019 and will wrap up this year, with an estimated project cost of $62 million, nearly every airport restroom will be overhauled. On a wall near the new restrooms by gates C2 and C3, you’ll find the airport’s very first permanent piece of video art, by Seattle artist Emily Tanner-McLean. “Point of Origin, Tides,” is an evolving, kaleidoscopic tapestry on an 11-minute loop that’s worth a little time to stop, take a breath and watch. Your travel blood pressure will thank you. (And, as seen on a recent visit, it’s a big hit with babies.)
D Concourse
Neatly assembled in a recessed wall near the airport’s first all-gender bathroom near the D gates, you’ll find a gallery wall of wonderful artworks, primarily by local artists.
There are Humaira Abid’s wood sculptures, so warm and lifelike you want to press your nose to the glass (but don’t actually do this) to take in every incredible detail. Enjoy Joey Veltkamp’s plush “50 Sunsets,” made of fabric, thread and embroidery floss; and Jeffry Mitchell’s intricate lithograph “Black Flower #1.” On a recent visit to the airport, more than one passing traveler stopped to photograph Laurie Hogin’s hysterically evil-looking bunnies, painted in the style of a classical still life.
Still to come
In addition to diversifying the roster of artists represented at the airport, Gregory aims to support local artists whenever possible. A new North Main Terminal project by Ballard-based artist Matthew Szosz, which is slated to be unveiled in late 2025, is one of the airport’s biggest public art commissions to date at $1.4 million.
“It’s just brilliant,” Gregory said. “It’s this gigantic oyster, like the size of a bus, all made of glass. And then the pearl on the inside of it, which the public will be going underneath on an escalator, is illuminated.”
And that commission, the Port curator said, has kept Szosz from leaving Seattle.
“I do feel like it is our responsibility to create these opportunities,” Gregory said.
And these highlights barely scratch the collection’s surface. Although getting to your gate might require a long walk, Sea-Tac offers so much to soak in along the way.
“[Art is] a legacy of things that, if you go back to the cave, remind us that we’re human beings,” Gregory said. “It’s what makes us, us. And not everyone can make it to a museum. But we’re just humans, we get a limited time here — we’ve got to make it interesting.”
