Richmond International Airport has installed its first public artwork: Travel Companions, a 24-foot sculpture by conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta depicting three hummingbirds and a flowering dogwood, Virginia's state tree. The Capital Region Airport Commission awarded the $400,000 project contract in February 2025, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.
What is Travel Companions?
According to the airport's announcement, the sculpture features the state tree of Virginia, a flowering dogwood, alongside three hummingbirds, and stands in the renovated center core plaza between the airport's parking garages. It is the first public art installation at Richmond International Airport, and it was selected by an evaluation committee made up of commission staff, local art professionals, and community representatives, with public-art consultancy Designing Local supporting the process. The commission awarded the contract in February 2025 at a total project cost of $400,000.
For travelers, the work reframes the most forgettable zone of any airport, the space between garage and terminal, as a place with an image of its own. Hummingbirds, long-distance migrants that pass through Virginia, give the title its double meaning: the birds are travel companions for passengers, and the dogwood roots them in the state outside the glass.
Who is the artist behind it?
Matthew Mazzotta is a conceptual artist best known for large public works that take familiar forms and scale them into landmarks. As the airport's release notes, Mazzotta is the artist behind other celebrated projects, including HOME, a giant pink flamingo at Tampa International Airport. Airport commissions have become one of the most visible stages for this kind of civic sculpture, reaching an audience that museums can only envy: every passenger leaving or arriving passes the work, whether or not they ever set foot in a gallery.
How was the project funded and received?
The project cost of $400,000 covered the commission from selection through installation, a figure documented in the airport's own materials rather than estimated after the fact. Local coverage has followed the unveiling closely: the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in a story published the day after the ribbon-cutting, reported on the installation under the headline "Giant hummingbirds! Richmond airport unveils first public art installation," noting that passengers at Richmond International Airport are getting a new welcome, with the artist speaking at the ceremony.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's coverage captures the practical point for design watchers: public art at this scale is a procurement story as much as an aesthetic one, moving through committee selection, consultant support, and a two-and-a-half-year build from contract to unveiling. Richmond's dogwood and hummingbirds now join Mazzotta's Tampa flamingo in a small but growing menagerie of airport landmarks.
