When art lovers Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson dreamed up the idea of creating a showcase for their collection that would double as a hospitality hotspot for their hometown they really started something.
Their original 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, opened in 2006, inspired a new generation of hotels which recognises art as a draw for culture vultures and commissions original paintings and sculptures for their corridors.
A couple of hours drive from Nashville, now served by a direct BA flight from London, Louisville is a sophisticated city with an excellent public art museum, a world-class racetrack where the Kentucky Derby is run and a rich Jewish history, closely entwined with the bourbon industry.
And the hotel, which helped to put the city on a map with a 30 foot high golden replica of Michelangelo’s David marking its Main Street location, has drawn enough attention to attract a buyout earlier this year by the French group Accor – so book a trip quickly to check out its highly individual personality, before any changes from the new owners.
You could be forgiven for thinking this hotel was all gallery, given its lobby and basement are exclusively devoted to art; it dominates the reception area to the point of almost camouflaging welcoming staff.
The rooms in this handsome old warehouse building are all on the upper floors, offering spacious sleeping areas, high ceilings and plenty of exposed brick. Small but hip bathrooms are equipped with groovy nightclub lighting and designer toiletries, and Nespresso machines come as standard.
Don’t be startled to find a life-size plastic penguin standing guard outside your room - this emblem of the hotel is often placed to greet arriving guests, and there are more of them in the lobby and shop.
Proof on Main, the hotel’s restaurant, is also a gallery in its own right, with several rooms featuring a colourful, semi-permanent display of Americana on a two-year rotation.
The southern breakfast is arguably less successful than lunch and dinner, prepared with ingredients from the hotel’s many local partners; it was a philanthropic bid to support regional farmers and spur urban renewal as much as a love of art which inspired the establishment of the hotel.
The bar is a lively meeting place for Louisville natives day and night, with excellent craft cocktails mixed to order - this is the place to order a whisky sour - and an excellent choice of the state’s best and rarest bourbons.
And curators are available to give a guided tour of the rotating art display in the gallery spaces, which in the past has featured world-famous names such as Sam Taylor-Wood, Bill Viola and Chuck Close.
As these can be viewed 24/7, save your daylight hours for trips to the city’s museums. Along with the Speed Art Museum, there are others devoted to Muhammed Ali and the Derby itself, at the Churchill Downs track.
Don’t miss the excellent Evan-Williams Bourbon Experience by the Jewish owners of the old Isaac Bernheim distillery either - a two-minute stroll from the hotel.
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