H O T E L A N D M U S E U M
REDEFINING HOSPITALITY
Founded in 2006 by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, 21c Museum Hotels are a rarity: boutique hotels doubling as one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States, open to the public, 24/7, free of charge. As MGallery Collection’s newest addition, we met with 21c’s founders, along with Chief Curator and Museum Director, Alice Gray Stites to talk about their approach to this unconventional concept.
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Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson creators of 21c Museum Hotels
view art outside of a conventional museum environment — they experienced it in an entirely new, approachable context. That started us thinking about howwe could expand on these private tours, almost ‘unleashing’ them in an unexpected way. “WE TOOK OVER VACANT BUILDINGS, AS WE HAD OFTEN SEEN IN EUROPE, AND CONVERTED THEM INTO A CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM AND COMBINED IT WITH LOUISVILLE’S FIRST BOUTIQUE HOTEL.”
With these visitors to our private residence in mind, we decided to take over a number of vacant buildings, as we had often seen in Europe, and conver ted them into a contemporary art museum, accessible to the public free of charge, 365 days a year. We then combined it with Louisville’s first boutique hotel because we believed it was the best way to have visitors 24/7. The result was the creation of a new hospitality experience. 21c continues to grow and to expand its exhibition space, which few museums have the opportunity to do consistently. When Chicago opens this winter, 21c will have the largest exhibition space dedicated to sharing contemporary art with the public in nine cities across the U.S., and we are still expanding: St Louis, MO is opening in 2020, and Des Moines, IA in 2021.
What was the idea behind the f i rs t 21c in Louisvi l le ?
Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson: "The creation of the first 21c Museum Hotel in 2006 was motivated by our own passion and personal experience with how contemporary art has shaped the way we see the world around us. At that time, our local museum was not very interested in contemporary art, while we have been and continue to be passionate about the work of living artists — we live with it throughout our home, in every room — so, Laura Lee and I committed to sharing our personal art collection with the public. Because we have always lived with art, museum curators and directors would sometimes send visitors to our home to view the collection. Guests were fascinated to
What were the ini t ial react ions when you star ted working on this project?
AliceGray Stites: The public’s response was very positive. Reactions were mainly intrigued
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