January 2012. A Marriage of Art and Commerce: Local imagery presented in unexpected ways—in an unexpected setting.

Imagine an art exhibition of iconic Louisiana imagery: the Mississippi River, jazz music, Delta cuisine, the flora and fauna of the bayou—all unexpectedly presented and thoughtfully installed throughout a 260,000-square-foot space, where custom designed or carefully selected wall and floor coverings, accent pieces and furnishings, seamlessly reinforce the thematic elements present in the paintings, photographs and sculptures.

The collection features hand-blown glass sculptures by James Vella, artist and creator of Vella Vetro Art Glass of New Orleans; floral photographs on polycarbonate by fine arts photographer David Carlysle Humphreys of Baton Rouge; a four-piece oil on panel waterscape by current Baton Rouge resident (and New Orleans native) Jill Hackney;  a “Triptych Painting of a Crab” by New Orleans painter Billy Solitario; and a commissioned wall-mounted/ceiling-suspended installation of hand-formed polycarbonate, “Birds,” by Baton Rouge sculptor Brad Michael Bourgoyne.

Original paintings by LSU interior design alum Doug Detiveaux and Austin artist Doug Kennedy, as well as exceptionally produced prints of Demond Matsuo’s highly textured “Icarus” series paintings and photography by Eleanor Owen Kerr, Dede Lusk and Mitchell Naquin also hang.

This multi-modal, visual narrative of Louisiana was curated by Ann Connelly Fine Art of Baton Rouge and is on indefinite display in the capital city. The revelation is where this ambitious collection of indigenous art is showing: The Renaissance Baton Rouge, a newly opened luxury hotel.

The Renaissance, itself, is replete with all of the amenities and services expected of luxury accommodations. Guest rooms are furnished with king or double queen beds, flat-screen televisions, iPod docking stations and Aveda bathroom amenities. The hotel features a concierge lounge, a top-of-the-line business center, state-of-the-art meeting rooms, a fully equipped fitness center, a full-service spa, a resort-style outdoor pool and courtyard, a Grand Ballroom and a casual, yet upscale, restaurant and wine bar named for the town of Tallulah, Louisiana.

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