Eighteenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Art is ubiquitous with its presence in public transit systems and doyens of high culture like carefully-curated museum exhibits. In this ever-expanding and continually-underwritten world of art reality and consumption, this study focuses on the presence of artworks in hotel lobbies. Situated squarely in the realm of premium hotels and their décor, the study has three research objectives: a) Understanding the purpose of recognisable celebrated artworks in these luxury spaces; b) Understanding the impact of art on patrons’ experience; c) Studying the meaning making experience when unmediated by commentaries and guidelines. The researchers studied premium hotels in New Delhi, India to analyse the relationship between art and the non-artist, non-critic viewer, in the absence of curated museum documentations and gallery mediated narratives. Since premium hotels continue to display high art canvases by celebrated Indian artists such as M. F. Hussain and Satish Gujral, this space is ideal. With a qualitative research design including FGDs and in-depth semi-structured interviews, the study focuses on narratives of patrons and employees to understand the democratisation of art. It employs narrative research and documents how presence and experience of art impacts members who engage with it. The data are analysed through narrative enquiry, inductive pattern analysis, and stitching together of narrative. The outcomes are expected to generate insights and consequently demonstrate the impact of the study. The study hopes to provide novel insights on democratised and accessible art and the manner in which it enriches the human experience of large public spaces.