Can Original Local Art Fix a Hotel That Reads Too Neutral?
Last updated: 25 October 2026
In short: Teresa Aversa of the art consultancy Art and Objects called the Park Hyatt Chicago’s design “quite muted and neutral” and answered it with “colorful artwork” by local artists. That is a strategy a hospitality designer can borrow: keep the architecture calm and let original art supply the color and the local story. Here is what the consultants say, and what it asks of a painter.
What did the Park Hyatt Chicago do about a muted palette?
Hospitality Design’s “18 Art Installations Yield a Strong Sense of Place” (Kathryn Greene, Alissa Ponchione and Stefanie Schwalb, 20 January 2026) describes how the local firm Anderson/Miller hired Art and Objects to create a custom art program for the hotel’s 36 guest suites and premium rooms. “The hotel design is quite muted and neutral, so we sought to balance that by injecting the property with colorful artwork,” says Art and Objects principal Teresa Aversa. The program draws on local artists John Opera, Divine Southgate-Smith and Clarissa Bonet, along with custom pieces such as a three-dimensional wall sculpture above the headboard.
The neutral room stayed neutral. The color arrived on the wall, which is where it can be chosen, rehung and changed.
Why does the color belong to the art rather than the room?
Terry Eaton, founder of Eaton Fine Art, has built art programs for international hotel brands for more than 25 years. Speaking at HD Expo in an interview published on iands.design (16 May 2019), he said that “it’s still that color punch that brings the art to life.” He added that a program should follow the property’s own story: “One thing we might do for Brand XYZ is not going to be the same at another brand.”
A painter sees the same logic from the other side. Upholstery, tile and millwork are commitments, and a canvas is a decision a hotel can revisit. Georgia O’Keeffe said it simply: “Filling a space in a beautiful way—that is what art means to me.”
What does a local story ask of the art?
Judith Tatar, who led the art program at the Conrad Los Angeles, told Whitewall (Daniel Scheffler, 25 April 2025) that “telling a local story” answers the traveler’s wish for “an authentic experience.” The writer Wendell Berry put the idea in one sentence: “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” A guest in a hotel is trying to learn where they are.
Nashville offers a close example. When The Joseph opened, developer Joel Pizzuti said in Hospitality Design (29 April 2021) that “Art can be intimidating, and we wanted the Joseph Nashville to feel warm, welcoming, and comfortable.” Adam Rolston of INC Architecture & Design, who led the interiors, said the team “connected to local crafts in a genuine way without being thematic or fake.” The palette there is neutral, built from copper, marble, oak and saddle leather, so craft and art carry the story. That article is five years old and is cited for its design thinking, not for any current claim.
How does one painter’s color work at hotel scale?
Paintings from this studio hang throughout the Conrad Nashville: 33 originals across the private suites, the public and gallery areas and both dining rooms, in interiors by Champalimaud Design, with the art placed by the consultant Tammy Parmentier. I painted for a building that already had a point of view, and color did the quiet work of making each room feel specific to Nashville.
Scale is built into the practice. Large-scale work is made on a horizontal surface and approached from all four sides, and a painting too large for any doorway is built across stretched canvas tiles that reassemble seamlessly on site, with no upper size limit. Not every program needs an original in every room, and where one image has to repeat across many rooms I license reproductions; the Grand Hyatt Nashville lobby carries a licensed reproduction.
Where can a designer or art consultant start?
The hospitality and commercial page sets out how originals, commissions and licensed reproductions work for a project. Designers sourcing for a client can read the Trade Program, a commission follows a set sequence from conversation to delivery, and the studio’s story shows where the work comes from.
Frequently asked questions
Can art change how a neutral hotel feels?
Yes. At the Park Hyatt Chicago, art consultant Teresa Aversa described the design as “quite muted and neutral” and balanced it with colorful artwork by local artists. The architecture stayed calm and the walls carried the color.
Should hotel art be original or a reproduction?
Both have a place. Originals suit the rooms where guests linger, such as lobbies, suites and dining rooms. Licensed reproductions suit a program that repeats one image across many rooms.
What does “local artists” mean in a hotel art program?
Artists from the hotel’s own city or region, whose work tells that place’s story. Judith Tatar, who led the art program at the Conrad Los Angeles, calls “telling a local story” part of giving travelers an authentic experience.
How does a designer commission large-scale art for a hotel?
Start with the wall and the room, then a conversation with the painter about palette, scale and schedule. Oversized work can be built across stretched canvas tiles that reassemble on site, and the Trade Program is open to verified designers.