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Composition
Artist: Aaron T Stephan Music City Center, Nashville
Installed: 2013
‘Public art has to be more accessible. It isn’t usually dark and moody and murky, and often injects levity and surprise.’
‘OBSERVE AND APPRECIATE’ It’s not just convention centers that are turning to local art as a way to communicate a sense of place. Hotels of all sizes are installing works inspired by local culture and his- tory and created by regional artists. The 1,001-room Omni Dallas Hotel features more than 7,000 pieces of art- work from Dallas-based artists, while the 157-room Alexander in downtown Indianapolis holds more than 50 works, including site-specific commis- sioned pieces, many of them based on Indiana personalities or culture. Education is an important compo-
nent of many art programs at hotels and convention centers. In Nashville, local schools are developing curricu- lums based on Music City Center’s art. “There is documentation that when children are exposed to art as part of a curriculum,” Boyd said, “they test higher in every subject, includ- ing math and science.” There’s value to adult learners as well, he added. Meeting attendees, who are stepping out of their typical environments, are
ripe for making creative connections, or for learning something new about a different culture. Convention center art programs
don’t mistake themselves for museum programs, Boyd said. For one thing, while subject matter can be thought- provoking, it is seldom provocative. “It’s not all sailboats and gardens,” Merritt said, but the exhibited work generally steers clear of overtly political, sexual, or religious themes. “Public art has to be more acces-
sible,” said Mark Ernst, an architect at Engberg Anderson in Milwaukee, which was a lead in a project to inte- grate the work of 14 artists and 15 writers into the Wisconsin Center (formerly Midwest Airlines Center) when it was constructed in 1998. It “isn’t usually dark and murky and moody,” Ernst said, “and often injects levity and surprise.” The scope and purpose of MCCA’s
art program, Merritt said, “is for people to stop and observe and appre- ciate.” By her estimate, only one in 100 people pauses to look closely at each of
the individual artworks installed at the Hynes and the BCEC. Considering that the centers will draw 770,000 visitors through their doors this year, “that’s a pretty good ratio,” she said. (In com- parison, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had 6.3 milllion visi- tors in 2012.) And if convention centers are an
unconventional, unexpected place for art, Merritt said, “I think that’s a good thing” — bringing something to the public that they otherwise might not come into contact with. Some visitors, including the mainstream sports fans who come to the BCEC, might be intim- idated to walk into Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. “At the convention center,” Merritt said, “they can see really fan- tastic art — without feeling they need a Ph.D. in art history.” On the following pages you’ll find a selection of artwork that was installed in convention centers and conference hotels around the world in the last five years. ›
Barbara Palmer is senior editor of Convene. OCTOBER 2013 PCMA CONVENE 45