An artist’s rendering of the planned Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (image courtesy of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and JFK Millennium Partners)
John F. Kennedy International Airport’s new Terminal 6 will include works of art from several prominent New York cultural institutions.
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the JFK Millennium Partners consortium have announced that four New York cultural institutions will be commissioning and donating artworks and artifacts to be housed in the new Terminal 6. The terminal will open ten of its gates by 2026, while the structure’s completion is set for 2028. The donors include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and Lincoln Center. The current plan is for these artworks to be displayed in the international arrivals corridor of the terminal. The MoMA’s contribution will be a collaboration with Yoko Ono, inspired by her installation work PEACE is POWER, which she created as part of the museum’s expansion in 2019. Lincoln Center will be commissioning a large mural featuring musicians, dancers, actors, and other artists. While the Metropolitan Museum of Art won’t be sending any actual artworks to JFK, they plan on creating seventeen high-quality replicas of works representing each of its curatorial collections. The American Museum of Natural History also plans on sending a collage of images from its collection, including a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil, a Moai sculpture from Easter Island, and taxidermied specimens from the Hall of North American Mammals.
On top of contributions from museums, the new Terminal 6 will include installations by nineteen New York-based contemporary artists hailing from seven different countries, including Barbara Kruger, Nina Chanel Abney, Felipe Baeza, and Uman. These permanent installations have been commissioned and curated by the Public Art Fund. Meanwhile, the new terminal will also feature space for six other works selected by the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning to be exhibited temporarily on a rotating basis. These arts projects at JFK are a continuation of installations at other new terminals in the New York area. Contemporary artworks have been included at Newark Liberty’s Terminal A, as well as Terminal B and C at LaGuardia. According to the Port Authority’s executive director, Rick Cotton, the contemporary installations and participation from museums constitute an “increased recognition of the impact and the importance of the art.”
JFK and other New York airports are not the first to feature works of fine art in their terminals. I’ve written several times about similar projects at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Fiumicino, the point of entry for nearly all airline passengers visiting Rome. Instead of contemporary art, the airport and Italy’s culture ministry have collaborated to exhibit artworks from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, including sculptures by Bernini and stained glass panels designed by Giotto. I previously doubted if this was necessary as a promotion of Italian art and culture, since seeing and experiencing the country’s culture is often most tourists’ primary objective. For New York, however, it’s slightly different. While museums are an important attraction for out-of-towners, it’s often not the first thing people want to do when visiting the city. Times Square, Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, those are the things you’d see on day one. The city’s museums and other cultural institutions, however, are some of the best in the country. So any tourist would be remiss if they neglected to take advantage.