21c Museum Hotel in Louisville Offers Art Immersion Experience

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Staying at the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, KY, is like staying in an art gallery — especially if you opt for the “Asleep in a Cyclone” room (above) – an art installation by New York artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe.The whole 21c experience is something else. Between permanent collections and current exhibitions, there is always something avant-garde going on at these boutique hotels. There are three locations: the flagship hotel in Louisville, KY, one in Cincinnati, OH and one in Bentonville, AR. The Louisville hotel is home to the Asleep in a Cyclone room – a hotel room full of Freeman & Lowe pieces, not to mention the incredible stained glass. There’s so much to see, it would be hard to sleep in this room (which is part of the current exhibits and available for booking). A selection of music is included in the room – hand chosen by the artists. And a curio cabinet is filled with their work: collages, books and small sculptures. But there is much more to love about the Louisville location. You’ll recognize it when you get close by the red penguins standing guard on the roof (the Cincinnati hotel features yellow penguins, the Bentonville hotel, lime green). And while you’re in Louisville, how about scooting around town in a limousine that’s been beaded with tens of, if not hundreds of, thousands of sparkly read beads — so that it looks like the inside of a pomegranate? Penguin not included.

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The limo looks like the inside of a pomegranate.

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Red penguins announce the hotel.

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The Raft, from a former exhibit, turned a lot of heads outside the hotel.

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Part of the main dining room’s exhibit: Creatures from the Collection

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In the “Asleep in a Cyclone” room, a curio cabinet holds assorted work by the artists.

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More information: 21c Museum Hotel

Written by Beverley Wood

Beverley Wood has lived on boats in Toronto and Vancouver and in an old hacienda in Mexico. She knows funky when she sees it. She's been writing since she was old enough to pick up a pen and has never shied away from the unusual or the whimsical. Her love of the unique (and sometimes bizarre) led her to Captivatist.