At Seaham Hall a dedicated art curator works to enhance visitor experience through the power of art.

When you go to a spa everything is thought out from the treatments to the food they serve at lunchtime – it’s all part of the experience they want you to have.  What you may have paid less attention to however, is the art on the walls.  So how and why it is an important part of the experience at a hotel or spa?  Patrick McCrae, Managing Director at ARTIQ, who help spas and hotels to choose the artwork on their walls to create the ambience they want, explains…

For any hotelier worth their salt, every tiny detail of a hotel’s branding, service, look and feel is considered, re-examined and then poured over again. As hotel connoisseurs, frequent travellers and jet setters know, every tiny detail not only counts, but plays a significant role in creating a certain atmosphere, tone or attitude. From a knowledgeable concierge to an impeccably-laid-out room; toiletries; accessories; artwork – everything has the potential to strike that perfect note.

But, as a specialist in art, I want to focus specifically on the artwork.  Where upholstery can reference patterns from the locale and lighting can establish atmosphere and mood, artwork can articulate the full story and convey the feelings we would like guests to experience.  Gone are the days when art in hotels simply matched the décor. Art today not only needs to look beautiful and make sense, but be relevant too. Whether referencing a hotel building’s history or telling a particular local story, art has both a narrative purpose and can help create the right atmosphere – perfect for creating a relaxing environment for the type of spa break that you’re after, for example, whether that’s a health retreat or a decadent afternoon tea.

The world has a shared and fascinating history made up of people’s stories; which can be possible to indicate in the interior design, but with artwork you can really pull in the significance of the place. With obscure photographic crops of old buildings in London, street art in Bristol or a chandelier that looks like avalanches in a ski resort, all of these are ways of expressing and creating context and links.

In one recent project, my team spent an entire week working on the different historical memes in and around Spitalfields in London. We visited the site, walked the streets, read up on local history and worked with local archives and institutions to be able to hone in on and pull out specific cultural trends based around migration and manufacture. The final project focused on the textile colours of the Bangladeshi community and details from Jewish mercantile traditions.

So next time you’re at a hotel or spa, do take a moment to pause and take a closer look at the walls because chances are what’s on them isn’t just about aesthetics and you may learn something about the history of the area, as well as enhancing your own experience of the hotel or spa. Recently, we worked with a client to build a cultural link between their hotel and the British Library – a great example of a client taking their art seriously.  The corridors are now adorned with artworks that mirror the standing exhibitions at the British Library.

Seaham Hall has a dedicated art curator to enhance your experience through the power of art, and at The Vineyard the paintings on the walls reference the owner’s vineyard in California.

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