The Houston Airports’ Public Art Program is committed to showcasing cultural arts and providing a sense of place in the airports. With that in mind, the program is expanding its seasonal display of arts and artifacts by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo into long-term temporary exhibitions at both George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports. 

The artwork on display features champion lots from the past several decades courtesy of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s School Art Program, which encourages creativity among pre-K through 12th grade students. The program provides students with an opportunity to compete in district shows, earn scholarships, travel to summer workshops and display their artworks at the rodeo and other venues. 

Also on display are oversized painted cowboy boots. The custom boots are a part of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Boot Row exhibit, which was created in 2019 as a public call for local artists to develop artwork to be voted on and displayed at the rodeo.  

Specific to Bush Airport, passengers will find two custom painted cows—the Elvis Cow, and the Rodeo Clown Cow — which are part of the Parade of Cows, a fundraiser for the Texas Children’s Hospital, and are sister cows to the airport’s beloved “Moonwalker” the Space Cow located in the Terminal A ticketing lobby. 

Hobby Airport is displaying the chuckwagon—an exact model of what a real-life setup would look like on the trail. It embodies the essence of the rodeo’s annual trail ride,  when 13 trail rides descend on Houston from all across the states of Texas and Louisiana, and even from Mexico, to kick off the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It is one of the rodeo’s biggest traditions and the art exhibit exemplifies one of the rodeo’s four main pillars—western history. 

The rodeo display will run through January 2022.