Night at the 21c Museum Hotels

Experience art and accommodation with a stay at a 21c Museum Hotel.

Long before the trend of vibrant lobby upfits, the 21c Museum Hotels group was redefining what it meant to travel surrounded by art and design.

As the name suggests, the hotels—now in eight cities—are, in fact, museums housing permanent as well as rotating collections. But unlike traditional art institutions, the hotels are open to the public 24 hours a day.

There is art in every form, everywhere, including in bathrooms, elevators, and hallways. The brand’s signature penguin sculptures move about the properties, each in their own emblematic color according to city. Visitors and guests are encouraged to touch and interact with the sculptures, which were created by the artists’ collective Cracking Art Group. When I visited the Durham location, I shared an elevator with a bright pink penguin and later spied another peering out a window on my hall.

In 2006, philanthropists and contemporary art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson opened the first 21c Hotel in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. They commemorated the event by installing a three-story, gold-leaf representation of David on Main Street facing the Ohio River. The brand has since expanded to Chicago and Cincinnati as well as Kansas City, Missouri; Lexington, Kentucky; Durham, North Carolina; and Bentonville, Arkansas.

St. Louis is the newest 21c; it opened in August 2023 in an original YMCA complex, a great example of Renaissance Revival-style architecture. Preservation and adaptive reuse are hallmarks of the hotels, so revitalizing historic or architecturally significant buildings, including warehouses and office buildings, aligns with the group’s sustainable practices.

Calling Brown and Wilson art enthusiasts would be an understatement. They founded the hotels with a vision to combine luxury hospitality with contemporary works from living artists. They wanted to offer guests an opportunity to immerse themselves in the modern and at times avant-garde corners of their collection. Eighteen years later, artists range from the sought-after and well-known to those just emerging. Notably, there’s very little abstract art hung at the hotels; most works are figurative or conceptual.

The overall design of the hotels reflects an appreciation for the evolving nature of contemporary art and a willingness to explore themes of expression. Interiors are stimulating and thought-provoking, splashed with art from across a range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, and multimedia. My favorite piece in Louisville was a black box installation exploring the myth of Leda and the Swan, which combined sculpture, light, and film. Each hotel has several permanent pieces unique to its locale, and rotating exhibitions are curated by the 21c staff and installed for a year at a time. And, of course, the collection continues to grow.

Let’s Talk Rooms at 21c Museum Hotels

Sure, there’s a plethora of art at the 21c Museum Hotels, but the rooms are equally worthy of attention. They feel ultra-modern, with sparse furnishings of high design, and ergonomic finishes extend from bedroom to bath. There’s glorious lighting, too, with myriad dimmers. Some rooms have plaster walls, while others have factory finishes or are upholstered in fabric. It’s all part of the design to exude luxury within the structure of existing architecture.

The Ultimate Collectors

Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, the founders of 21c Museum Hotels, have amassed an astonishing amount of contemporary works from living artists across the globe. As they continue to buy, the collection is curated for the hotels with these specifications in mind: