The hotel as a gallery – the InterCityHotel photo art project

The InterCityHotel Group has joined forces with colleges of art to launch a special and unique project in which art students create tailored photographic works for InterCityHotels. Since 2008, all new InterCityHotels have featured specially produced photo art designed to match in with the respective hotel and its surrounding environment. In 2011, this successful project was extended to include existing InterCityHotels and hotels which have recently been renovated.

The Frankfurt-based InterCityHotel Group has been busy turning its city hotels into art galleries since 2008, when it implemented a concept unique in Germany. Under a special arrangement entered into with colleges, art students are producing photographic works for new and newly renovated InterCityHotels. The hotel group's initial cooperation partner was the Academy of Fine Arts in Braun¬schweig, the project later being continued in conjunction with the Faculty of Design at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. The young artists involved undertake extensive preparatory work by carefully researching the past and present of the location in question. They then create photographic works of art which interpret the environment in which the hotel stands. The works themselves may be viewed both in the public areas of the hotel and in the guest rooms.

The newly constructed InterCityHotel in Dresden served as a pilot for the project in 2008. It was followed in the same year by establishments in Essen and Mainz and then by the InterCityHotels in Hanover, at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport and in Mannheim. The first newly renovated hotel to display specially created photo art was the InterCityHotel Kiel in 2011. Art galleries have also been in place in Ulm and Vienna since last year.