With museum-grade art exhibitions working their way into uncommon locations including office buildings, airports, disused storefronts, and even aircraft (Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific’s new Gallery in the Skies initiative), it makes complete sense that hotels should also operate as venues for such programming. As the hospitality industry continues to push for site responsivity—introducing elements that directly reflect the culture and history of a locale’s immediate surroundings—implementing a robust art curation can be a highly effective form of speaking to the traveling creative class.

At full-service resorts, such activations can be the differentiator for a discerning clientele increasingly in search of distinct experiences. Long-gone are the days of cookie-cutter chain hotels with antiseptic landscape paintings that simply serve as generic decor.

Guests can now engage with new or recontextualized historic works in these less constraint or prescriptive environments. Talents—those that might not have an entry at more traditional institutions—are given the chance to showcase their work in an unlikely setting, perhaps even respond to its idiosyncrasies, and draw in an entirely different audience.

Avoiding gimmicky applications—the garishly inauthentic graffiti wall and replicated historical statuary at The W Philadelphia for example—can also be challenging. During Miami Art Week each December, the Faena Hotel complex plays host to an extensive program of permanent and temporary installations and numerous events to boot, making full use of the adjoining beach. While Damien Hirst’s wooly-mammoth skeleton sculpture might not be to everyone’s taste, a massive sandcastle maze—Sebastian Errazuriz’s 2023 Journey Through the Algorithmic Self piece—might be more to their liking.

As the five following examples demonstrate, striking the right balance between providing clients with creature comforts and the luxuries they might not have at home with the qualities of rigorous art exhibition curation is a delicate process.

La Réserve Eden Zurich: a luxury hotel that’s a gateway to the Kunsthaus Museum 

The exterior of the luxury lakefront hotel. Image courtesy of La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich.

A bastion of “old world charm,” La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich is a recently revamped belle époque palace staged by Philippe Starck. While the hotel’s distinctly nautical theme reflects its immediate surroundings on Lake Zurich, the real draw for art lovers is its connection to the city’s impressive art scene. Zurich is home to a collection of 1,300 historic works by artists such as Max Bill, Augusto Giacometti, Nikki de Saint-Phalle, and Jean Tinguely, all of whom have ties to Switzerland’s avant-garde legacy. Guests of the hotel enjoy the added perk of free admission to the nearby Kunsthaus, the country’s largest art museum, making it an ideal gateway for exploring Zurich’s rich artistic heritage.

There is a lot to visually digest while dining. Image courtesy of La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich.

Ara Starck, the famed French industrial designer’s daughter and a successful artist in her own right, imagined five bespoke stained-glass windows throughout the hotel. It’s clear that the blurring of the boundaries between art, design, and craft prevalent in today’s creative economy is now permeating the hospitality sector as well. This multidisciplinary thinking aids in the collective ambition to shape these destinations with a more holistic and contextualized appeal; offering something different when compared to the homogenized and corporatized notion of luxury, comfort and even culture still prominent just a decade ago. It isn’t just furniture or decor that is helping hoteliers standout but also the implementation of existing art collections and commissioned site-responsive installations.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express’s L’Observatoir: a moving suite/ art installation 

Who said a hotel needed to be stationary? The reintroduction of night trains throughout Europe—a more sustainable alternative to short-haul flying—has also brought back the opulence (and the especially high price tag) of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Not looking to compete with the efficiency of air travel and other high-speed rail companies, Belmond has reintroduced the storied service with an eye towards immersive luxury. Shifting the paradigm a bit, however, is the exclusive L’Observatoire sleeper carriage conceived by French heavyweight artist JR that will be introduced in March 2025.

L’Observatoire Tea Room. Photo Credit: Ludovic Balay

In a style only befitting his “optimist,” the purpose-built car incorporates visuals and structural apertures that promote star-gazing. The spacious car promises, “The interiors flow through several micro-environments, from the bedroom featuring a free-standing bathtub, a bathroom, a lounge with a daybed, library, hidden Tea Room, with never-seen-before oculus-shaped skylights.” The Paris-to-Portofino route will return and can be combined with a stay at Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino. In spring 2025, a Paris-to-Tuscany route will launch, and the journey can be extended to Castello di Casole, A Belmond Hotel, Tuscany.

The Oculus of the Venice Simplon-Orient Express. Photo: Ludovic Balay

NEW Hotel Athens: Site responsive installations in every room

With a similar ambition to make art more accessible and draw-in audiences that might not otherwise engage with the field, industrialist and major collector Dakis Joannou—founder of the DESTE Foundation—established two art hotels in Greece: NOŪS Santorini and NEW Hotel Athens. At the latter, he not only called upon noted Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana to implement a clever adaptive reuse strategy but also ensured that each of the 79 guest rooms play host to a site-specific installation by a Greek artist.

The sculptures of Petros Moris explore antiquity. Courtesy of NEW Hotel Athens.

The offering of both permanent and temporary installations melds well into the capital’s ever-thriving art scene. The hotel serves as a good counterpoint to other traditional and alternative, commercial and cultural venues in its vicinity.

Malvina Panagiotidi’s arachnid-inspired web installation adorns the wall. Courtesy of NEW Hotel Athens.

The most recent contributions to this program are by Petros Moris and Malvina Panagiotidi; multimedia works taking pride of place in the reception area and Art Lounge amenity space. Moris’s Vein I and II, Times Circle, and Future Bestiary pieces challenge the constructs of antiquarianism and explore the notion that life during antiquity was rather restrictive. With iconic ruins like the Acropolis nearby, NEW Hotel Athens offers a thoughtful dialogue between past and future. Its forward-thinking design and inclusive approach to contemporary art create a space where history and modernity coexist.

21C Museum Hotels: Urban revitalization and immersive artworks

Perhaps the most obvious example of art hotels in the United States are the eight or so 21C Museum Hotels found throughout the Midwest and South. The boutique chain was established by collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson in 2006 with the intention of making contemporary art more accessible all while helping to revitalize struggling downtowns. Whether in Louisville, Nashville or Durham, 21C hotels always occupy repurposed warehouses or storefronts. Though acquired by French hotel conglomerate Accord in 2018—the company maintains its synergistic yet tailor-made approach which also carries through to its culinary offering. Though much of the focus is on showcasing works Brown and Wilson have sourced from schools, special exhibitions, and major fairs (the duo is famous for their frank interactions with gallerists at these events which is often documented on Instagram), the 21Cs also serve as vital platforms for local talents. These cities often don’t have as many places to exhibit contemporary works as others.

Nightwatch Suites by Chris Doyle. Courtesy of 21C Museum Hotels.

As evidenced in the recently introduced and especially immersive Nightwatch Suites installations by Chris Doyle, there’s also space to riff-on and play with the idea of what actually constitutes a hotel room and how one might operate as a canvas of sorts. Introduced at the 21C Cincinnati, Lexington, and Bentonville locations, “Nightwatch transports guests into a realm where art and technology blend seamlessly, creating a distinctive visual and sensory experience,” according to the company. The projected, animated, and somewhat interactive wall displays reinterpret the whimsical backdrops of seminal 1940s cartoon Fantasia.