IND, runner-up in last year’s Best Airport for Art poll, is asking travellers and Hoosiers to vote daily through 7 October
Indianapolis International Airport is competing in the 2026 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for Best Airport for Art, with voting open through 7 October.
- Indianapolis International Airport is nominated for USA TODAY 10Best’s 2026 Best Airport for Art award, with public voting open once per day through 7 October.
- IND placed second in the 2025 contest, when Tampa International Airport took the No. 1 position.
- Airport survey data cited by IND says 80% of travellers notice the terminal art and 69% say it improves their airport experience.
- The Indianapolis Airport Authority says its arts and culture programme invested nearly $114,000 in the local creative economy in 2025.
(NEWS) INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, United States, 2026-Sep-11 — /Travel PR News/ — Indianapolis International Airport is making another run at the top spot in a national airport-art ranking, asking travellers and Indiana residents to vote daily in the 2026 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards after finishing second last year.
Public voting for the Best Airport for Art contest is open through 7 October 2026, with one vote permitted per person each day. Nominees are selected by editors and travel-industry experts before the final ranking is decided by readers.
The campaign gives IND another opportunity to turn a feature of the passenger journey that might otherwise be treated as background decoration into a visible part of the airport’s identity. The terminal combines permanent installations with rotating exhibitions, live performances, video work, murals and dedicated gallery space, much of it linked to artists and cultural institutions from Indiana.
A runner-up returns for another national vote
Indianapolis narrowly missed the No. 1 position in the 2025 Best Airport for Art vote. Tampa International Airport won the 2025 art category, with Indianapolis among the competitors it surpassed and Nashville International Airport finishing third.
That result has shaped IND’s 2026 campaign. Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the Indianapolis Airport Authority, said the airport wants to convert last year’s near miss into a first-place finish while drawing wider attention to the local artists whose work reaches millions of passengers.
The scale of that audience is substantial. Indianapolis International Airport reported more than 10.6 million passengers in 2025, a record for the airport. Against that traffic base, airport officials describe IND as the city’s largest public art gallery by visitor exposure rather than by conventional museum measures.
Art is built into the passenger journey
IND’s arts and culture programme extends across the terminal rather than being confined to a single gallery. Temporary display cases appear both before and after security, while Concourse A includes the KIND Gallery. Travellers also encounter large-scale murals, performances in Civic Plaza and video art on the route to baggage claim.
The airport’s permanent collection dates to development of the current terminal, when an international call attracted 550 artist submissions. Thirty-seven works by 17 artists were selected for the collection, including eight artists with Indiana ties. The Indianapolis Airport Authority also works with the Indy Arts Council on rotating exhibitions by Central Indiana artists.
Recent partnerships have widened the programme beyond conventional visual-art displays. The airport has worked with organisations including The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, WEPArt! Colectivo, Indiana Repertory Theatre, the International Violin Competition and the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.
For travellers, the result is a terminal experience intended to introduce Indianapolis culture before they leave the airport. Airport survey data cited in the 2026 campaign says 80% of travellers notice the art, 89% consider it an aesthetically pleasing addition and 69% say it has a positive effect on their journey through IND.
Airport art as a gateway to the wider city
The programme is also being framed as a tourism and economic-development tool. IND says half of surveyed airport guests are more likely to visit a local cultural institution after seeing arts and culture at the airport, suggesting that terminal exhibitions can influence what travellers explore after arrival.
The Indianapolis Airport Authority says its arts and culture programme invested nearly $114,000 in the local creative economy during 2025. That spending supports a model in which airport space doubles as a high-traffic showcase for artists whose work might otherwise reach a smaller local audience.
Chyanna Outlaw, the authority’s arts programme specialist, said a first-place result would bring national visibility not only to the airport but also to Indianapolis artists and the wider creative economy.
The competition remains open until 7 October, and the airport is encouraging supporters to return to the ballot each day. For IND, the outcome is more than a trophy: it is a test of whether a public-art strategy embedded throughout a transport hub can become part of the destination brand itself.
Travellers can explore more of the airport’s current and permanent work through the IND arts programme, while flight and passenger information is available from the Indianapolis International Airport website.
