21c Museum Hotels began as a Kentucky power couple's attempt to save downtown Louisville and became a lesson in building mini-masterpieces for travelers
Four naked children are playing behind the front desk at the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville when I arrive. The fact that they’re statues by contemporary artist Judy Fox doesn’t make the scene any less disturbing, and that’s exactly the point behind having these shameless sprites at check-in. After all, a night at this hotel is truly a night at a museum.
Founded in 2006, 21c Museum Hotels combine provocative contemporary art (the name refers to the 21st century) and luxurious lodging in areas of the country that are typically flown over. As conceived by art collectors and philanthropists Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown—he a former political operative, she a Brown-Forman heiress—the hotels are often in historic buildings, gracefully reimagined by New York architect Deborah Berke, and feature museums filled with a permanent collection of art as well as temporary shows. As with the nude nymphs at check-in, the pieces are purposefully unconventional and unconventionally displayed. Anyone can visit the galleries (free of charge) at any time, though guests, naturally, have the truest 24/7 access to the exhibitions.
“We were only planning on doing the one in Louisville,” Wilson says of the 91-room flagship, where rooms start at $229 a night. “It wasn’t long after it opened that we had this tremendous response, and friends and advisors”—a group who had originally pleaded with them not to try this concept at all—“began to say, ‘You really ought to do more of these. If you don’t, someone else will.’”
(This story appears in the 11 December, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)