Convention Centers as Art Museums

from Successful Meetings (9/2007):


State of the "Art" Convention Centers
September 12, 2007
By Kinley Levack

"Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon meandered through the exhibit, taking in photographs of The Beatles by acclaimed lensman Harry Benson. But it wasn't at a trendy gallery, or a downtown museum, it was at the Hot Springs Convention Center in Arkansas." ...

"Convention centers around the country are incorporating gallery spaces in an effort to introduce meeting attendees to art from the area, encourage locals to visit the center, and beautify a space generally considered bland and unappealing.


Keep It Clean

At its core, all art is an attempt to come to terms with life's mysteries. With as many solutions to those questions as there are human beings, art is subjective and can be controversial, so centers have also found themselves in the awkward position of having to track down pieces that are compelling without being offensive." ...

The Hot Springs Convention Center is home to both a permanent collection and rotating exhibits, which have included Woodstock Vision: The Spirit of a Generation, by Elliot Landy, the official photographer of Woodstock; Portrait of an Era, Robert Altman's 1960s-era photography; and the current exhibit called The American Soldier, curated by Cyma Rubin, which displays more than 100 photographs of men and women in the armed forces, in images dating from the advent of photography." ...

A to Z in WA

"In Washington, planners tend to be unaware of the art prior to seeing the convention center. "When the meeting planners come for site visits early on, they are most often surprised to see the gallery spaces here," says Linda Willanger, director of corporate development for the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, in Seattle.

"We have had some groups ask for guided tours, which we can do easily," she says, although the center also makes a detailed self-guided walking tour brochure available to lead visitors through the six floors of permanent and rotating works. "We're not trying to be a museum; we just want to be a showcase for what visitors can see while they are here. We're kind of a sampling of Northwest art," says Willanger, who specifies that the convention center represents all of Washington, not just the Seattle area.

Apples to Zinfandel — Aberdeen to Zillah, the juried exhibit currently on display, is designed to drive home that point. The convention center partnered with the department of agriculture to highlight Washington's diverse agriculture and "to remind our citizens of the beauty across the entire state," says Willanger. "The rotating exhibits are fun, because they change every three months, and we can do about 125 works on our second level and we can actually do two shows simultaneously."

The permanent collection includes the Washington State Centennial Bell Garden, by David Mahler, comprising a bell from each of the state's 39 counties. A Jackie Ferrara, three-dimensional design called Meeting Place on the second floor combines a red, green, and black slate floor with steel and concrete benches and a platform. One of the convention center's most prominent pieces is Lebeg, by Ann Gardner, a hanging glass piece suspended four stories above the center's atrium floor that rotates slowly. The atrium is often used by groups for receptions and events, and various other gallery spaces around the facility accommodate groups of up to 500 for coffee breaks, receptions, or networking." ...

"A Cultural Connection

Under Hawaii's Art in Public Places program, established in 1967, one percent of the construction cost of new public buildings must go toward procuring commissioned or purchased art. So for the Hawaii Convention Center, the decision was not whether to include art, but how best to display the pieces and to select works of significance from a cultural perspective. "We use the term 'a Hawaiian sense of place,' " explains Tanaka. The center's pieces were all commissioned for the building, and "all of the artists had some grounding in the state of Hawaii, whether through education in Hawaii, having lived here," or some other connection, he says." ...

"If These Walls Could Talk

In Hartford, CT, it was a museum that made the first move when the Wadsworth Atheneum—the country's oldest public art museum—contacted the Connecticut Convention Center about incorporating a display. The display highlights the history of the Hartford area, and comes primarily from Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, who amassed a personal collection of over 600 pieces, all of which she bequeathed to the Wadsworth Atheneum upon her death in 1905; pieces at the center include a portrait of her husband, Samuel Colt, who is best known for Colt firearms.

"It was hard for us, because our art is very expensive, but we wanted to do it," says Lee Oliver, group visit coordinator at the Wadsworth Atheneum, which is located about a block from the center. "We tried to pick works that are not easily damaged, and also some pieces that would allow people to see what we have to offer."

The resulting display, which is lit to the specifications of the Wadsworth, has been embraced by both incoming groups and area residents. "It was kind of a dead-end spot on the exhibition level, and this provided us an opportunity to do something interesting in it," says Katie Blint, communications director for the convention center. "When people come to events, they're looking for places to relax, and this is a quick getaway from the business at hand. It's refreshing to be surrounded by beautiful art in a small space within a larger building. And when there are no groups in, people come in with their newspapers and their coffee and just enjoy it."

The relationship between meeting attendees and the museum extends beyond the convention center's gallery, as Oliver reaches out to incoming groups with whom she foresees a fit. Oliver creates tours of displayed pieces that would be of particular interest to a visiting group, and is sometimes able to bring pieces out of storage to display, if she thinks a group might appreciate viewing the work. "We try to be proactive and be a good partner based on those things; it's about playing nicely with your neighbors," Oliver says." ...

"Midwestern Masterpiece

Art has been an important part of the Overland Park Convention Center since its construction, which was completed in 2002. The center now boasts a permanent collection of 100 pieces as well as a rotating gallery collection that generally includes on an annual basis one juried show, one purchased show, one show of artwork from schools, and two to three exhibits decided by the local Friends of the Arts. "We consider it an integral part of what we do here. Sometimes I refer to us as a museum," says Nadine Guest, general manager of the convention center.

The gallery corridor is used on occasion for receptions—"I'm kind of surprised it doesn't happen more often," says Guest—and the pre-function space that can accommodate a couple of hundred attendees includes a number of pieces as well. "You don't have to be in the corridor to appreciate the art," explains Guest.

Local artist and gallery owner Paul Dorrell was selected to consult on the project from the beginning. "Paul is a well-published art advocate who is always interested in seeing vibrant environments. He was the perfect person to oversee the installation," says Guest. "His concept was to use regional artists; he wanted to create a world-class-caliber collection, featuring Midwestern artists." ...

for the complete story see: http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/articles/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003632735