I have posted a couple of pieces from 21c Museum Hotels (and expect to do so again) and I feel like I should explain the venue.

It is an upscale hotel chain with stunning contemporary art on display in all of their locations in several cities, one being Durham. It is one of the places we visit regularly when we are in the mood to see something worthwhile. (Luxury hotels are not where we sleep when we travel. But, they are where we are, sometimes, pleased to dine.)

We learned about them one day several years ago when we had been wandering around downtown Durham. The valet who was making himself available by the front door invited us to come see some art. Frankly, we thought he was up to something because he was so delighted to invite us in. But, he assured us that there was no charge and we were welcome to wander around.

What we saw was impressive.

The chain has been buying interesting old buildings, frequently banks, and turning them into luxury hotels in the business districts of large cities. They have a significant art collection (Kehinde Wiley and Andy Warhol among those in the mix) and move pieces around so that none of the individual hotels keeps the same stuff all the time. The excellent restaurants have pieces that are permanent and there are rotating exhibitions in other parts of the buildings. In Durham, that’s 2 floors up from ground level where the check-in desk operates, on the ground floor by-but-not-in the restaurant and in the basement where the bank vault used to be. (You can take your cocktail down to sit in the room where the safety depost boxes have had their locks broken and where the vinyl floor looks like it is covered in $20 and $100 bills.)

After falling in love with the local edition, I have made a point of visiting the others in cities we have visited. We’ve been to Louisville and Lexington, KY and I have been to the no-longer-there Nashville, TN location. (I was in Nashville for a funeral and Chuck wasn’t with me.)

I realized that they move pieces between locations because I saw a photograph I remembered from our first Durham experience in the Nashville location.

The Assistant Curator of the 21c collection was one of the jurors at ArtFields this year.