Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places Program and the Miami-Dade Aviation Department have issued an open call to visual artists for public art commissions connected to Miami International Airport’s $9 billion Modernization in Action capital improvement program. The call, which closes September 21, invites local, national, and international professional artists to submit qualifications for consideration across multiple commission opportunities projected to range from $100,000 to more than $500,000 per project. Between 30 and 40 artists are expected to be shortlisted for specific site opportunities over a period of at least two years.
Key Takeaways
- Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places Program and Miami-Dade Aviation Department are accepting artist qualifications for public art commissions at Miami International Airport through September 21, 2026
- Commission budgets range from $100,000 to $500,000 or more, with 30 to 40 artists expected to be shortlisted across multiple project sites over at least two years
- The commissions are part of MIA’s $9 billion Modernization in Action capital improvement program, a decade-long transformation of the airport’s terminals, infrastructure, and public spaces
- The call is open to professional visual artists at all career stages; there is no application fee, and artists submit existing work samples rather than project proposals at this stage
- An independent Professional Advisory Committee of art, architecture, and art history professionals reviews submissions and recommends artists to the Art in Public Places Trust
- A free online workshop held August 13 covered the selection process, portfolio development, and details on the commissioning timeline
The Commissions Are Embedded in a Decade-Long Airport Transformation
Miami International Airport’s Modernization in Action program is a 10-year infrastructure overhaul designed to expand the airport’s capacity to handle more than 77 million travelers and four million tons of freight annually by 2040. The $9 billion scope includes terminal renovations, concourse expansions, baggage system upgrades, roof replacements with solar panel installations, and a range of passenger experience improvements across the airport’s sprawling footprint.
The public art commissions are not decorative additions layered on after construction. Under Miami-Dade County’s founding ordinance for Art in Public Places, 1.5% of new construction budgets on public land are dedicated to the commissioning and acquisition of art. That policy, established in 1973, means the art program scales directly with the size of the capital project. A $9 billion modernization generates one of the largest pools of public art funding tied to a single infrastructure project in the county’s history.
The selected artists will develop works intended to contribute to the identity of specific areas within the airport and engage employees, visitors, and passersby. Each commission is expected to be site-responsive, meaning the work must be conceived in relation to the architectural, spatial, and cultural context of the location where it will be installed.
The Application Process Prioritizes Existing Work Over Speculative Proposals
The current call is structured as a qualifications-based submission rather than a traditional proposal competition. Artists are asked to submit images of completed work, a resume, and an artist statement. The Art in Public Places Program has explicitly stated that proposals, renderings, or concepts for unfinished projects should not be included at this stage. There is no fee to apply.
This two-phase approach is deliberate. The initial review focuses on an artist’s existing body of work and aesthetic range, giving the Professional Advisory Committee a basis for evaluating creative capability without locking artists into site-specific concepts before they have access to architectural plans, budget parameters, or physical site conditions.
The Professional Advisory Committee is composed of professionals in art, art history, architecture, and architectural history. The committee reviews all submissions and recommends artists to the Art in Public Places Trust, which oversees the program. Artists who advance to the shortlist are then invited to develop proposals for specific project sites. At that stage, they receive detailed information about the location, budget, and scope of work, and may tour the site and meet with the architects and planners leading the construction.
Artists selected to move forward present a working budget as part of their proposal. If accepted, the Art in Public Places Trust negotiates a contract covering the full scope of design and execution, including materials, fabrication, transportation, insurance, and installation. Progress payments are made according to an agreed schedule tied to project milestones.
MIA’s Existing Art Collection Spans More Than Five Decades of Public Commissions
The new commissions will join an existing collection that has been building since the Art in Public Places Program’s founding more than 50 years ago. Across Miami-Dade County, the program’s collection now includes more than 1,000 works of public art, ranging from monumental installations to architecturally integrated pieces created in collaboration with designers and architects.
At MIA specifically, travelers encounter public art at multiple points in their journey through the airport. Installations are positioned at the parking entrance, along the MIA people mover connecting to the Miami Intermodal Center, within concourses D and J, and at the South Terminal passport control area. The airport also operates the MIA Galleries program through its Fine Arts Division, which presents rotating exhibitions that communicate local culture, environment, and art resources to the tens of millions of passengers who pass through the airport each year.
The program was one of the first of its kind in the United States when Miami-Dade County established it in 1973. Its longevity and scale have made it a reference point for other municipal public art programs nationally, and the collection has been recognized with multiple awards for its role in shaping the public experience of county infrastructure.
The Scale of the Opportunity Reflects MIA’s Position as a Global Transit Hub
Miami International Airport is the busiest airport in the United States for international freight and the second busiest for international passengers. MIA offers more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport and generates approximately $181 billion in annual business revenue. The airport accounts for roughly 60% of all international visitors to Florida each year.
That volume of traffic means the public art installed through this program will reach an audience measured in the tens of millions annually. For artists, the commissions represent an opportunity to place permanent work in one of the most heavily trafficked international transit environments in the Western Hemisphere, in a county with a cultural infrastructure that has been investing in public art at a policy level for more than half a century.
The September 21 deadline applies to the qualifications submission only. Artists who are shortlisted from this round will enter the proposal phase on a rolling basis as specific commission sites are identified and architectural plans advance within the broader capital improvement timeline. The Art in Public Places Program held a free online workshop on August 13 covering the selection process, portfolio development guidance, and practical details about the commissioning timeline. A recording of that workshop is available through the Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places website for artists who were unable to attend the live session.
