State of the art meetings
A growing trend in convention centers across the country is to use ordinary gallery space to show off art.
“(It’s) an effort to introduce meeting attendees to art from the area, encourage locals to visit the center, and beautify a space generally considered bland and unappealing,” says Successful Meetings magazine.
But since some art is controversial, convention centers have to be careful about what they display.
In some areas, governments are encouraging the trend.
Hawaii has an Art in Public Places program that requires one percent of the construction cost of new pubic buildings go towards buying art, which impacted the Hawaii Convention Center.
Some centers have collections that may rival art museums.
The Overland Park Convention Center in Kansas, for example, has 100 pieces of art and a rotating gallery collection.
“Sometimes, I refer to us as a museum,” said Nadine Guest, general manger of the convention center.
Report by David Wilkening

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