21c Museum Hotel: where 21st century art rests
While other hotels provide just a place to sleep, 21c Museum Hotel delivers an art lover's dream.
Not just a 90-room hotel, 21c Museum Hotel, located on Main Street in downtown Louisville, says it is North America's first museum dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting 21st century art. Much of the art comes from the private collection of hotel owners and art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, from museums, other private and public collections, and artists themselves. There's so much artwork that it spills over to the adjacent restaurant Proof on Main, also owned by Brown and Wilson. The restaurant and hotel are located in five refurbished 19th century buildings, themselves distinctive works of art.
The art experience begins before you enter the hotel. Outside, a 20-foot-high chandelier graces the exterior at Seventh and Main streets. Its 2006 installation marked the first time a public sculpture by its creator, Austrian Werner Reiterer, was erected in the United States.
Artwork peeks out of unexpected locales. For instance, four sculptures by American artist Judy Fox — the girls in terracotta, the boys in aqua-resin — watch over 21c Museum Hotel's reception desk like sentinels: Online 1999, Divine Warrior 2004, Ayatollah 2004 and Lakshimi 1999. That the images are of children sculpted as historical representations in classical poses a curious conflict.
21c houses more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space, with both permanent installations and visiting exhibitions. Exhibitions in 21c's reception area gallery and in the lower atrium gallery change about every six months. Group projects and solo exhibitions by living artists festoon every nook and cranny — including video installations, In the Absence of Voyeurism 6 and 7 by American Sean Bidic, in the mirrors of the street level restrooms! (Video installation hours are 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.)
You can click here for details and more information on current or past art exhibitions at 21c or click here for details and more information on current or past art exhibitions at Proof on Main.
21c Museum Hotel (and Proof on Main), with its art-bestrewn space and seven meeting rooms, can accommodate meetings, private parties, retreats, receptions or charitable events of up to 450. More information is available online or by calling (502) 217–6312.
- by Ivonne Rovira, Louisville Reporter for HelloMetro
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