The Clarion Hotel Stockholm (image via flickr.com/Angberg)
The Chelsea Hotel may no longer be the artistic haven it once was, but artists looking for a friendly place where they can barter artwork for lodging need look no farther than … Sweden!
The Clarion Hotel Stockholm has started a program that lets artists — or anyone who claims to make art, really — stay at the hotel in exchange for an artwork. There are restrictions, though: it’s only good for one night for up to two people in a double room, and artists can participate in the program only twice a year. Not quite the long-term living of the Chelsea Hotel, but the Stockholm hotel was actually inspired by the New York landmark, according to Sweden’s The Local:
“It all started with the fact that our general manager’s grandfather was an artist,” Clarion Hotel’s PR and marketing manager Tess Mattisson told The Local.
“He actually had some of his work hanging in the Chelsea Hotel and now that their hotel has closed down, the manager was so inspired that our hotel will continue the tradition.”
Still, it’s surprising to see this kind of program in the works at a member of an international hotel chain, rather than at a small, independent operation, like Stuttgart’s Performance Hotel, which lets guests stay in exchange for performing a reading, music or dance (thanks to Springwise for alerting us to that).
At the Clarion, all artworks must be signed by the artist and submitted in A4 format, at which time they become the property of the hotel. Beyond that, there are no rules or aesthetic judgments (thank goodness). Information and forms can be found here.
And you know, this seems like the beginning of a nice itinerary for arting one’s way around Europe; after all, Stockholm to Stuttgart looks like a pretty easy flight …
