Portfolio Highlight: Artist ON Residency
At The Switzerland Inn, a 70-key, generational resort on the Blue Ridge Parkway, MMI Hotel Group anticipates 2024 to honor the legacy of the North Carolina village in which it was originally built in 1910. MMI acquired the hotel, restaurant, and spa with an expressed interest in adding programming that highlights the European references for which it was named. Menus, decor, and architectural features acknowledge the resort’s vantage point over Linville Gorge as something akin to the foothills of the Swiss Alps, with a resort-wide creative twist coming soon.
The scale of spaces needing art as a flourish and a grounding element for properties have historically opened the door for Artist in Residency programs. At The Switzerland Inn, though, we are taking a slightly different approach. Our artist will be painting ON the residence. When not greeting guests at the front desk, Christian College-grad Julie le Roux has been engaged to apply her artistry in and on the various structures across the resort’s 14-acre campus.
One week she might be working on a canvas of the rolling treetops and another day she may be adding floral flourishes to the exposed beams of the porte cochere.
MMI Corporate Director of Sales & Marketing Lindsay Hamm states, “The nearby Penland School of Craft is world class. And, to recognize this asset’s little dot on this big earth, we thought the establishment of an Artist ON Residency program would honor the beauty Penland has provided to folks around the world in a uniquely Swiss way.”
The scale of spaces needing art as a flourish and a grounding element for properties have historically opened the door for Artist in Residency programs. At The Switzerland Inn, though, we are taking a slightly different approach. Our artist will be painting ON the residence. When not greeting guests at the front desk, Christian College-grad Julie le Roux has been engaged to apply her artistry in and on the various structures across the resort’s 14-acre campus.
One week she might be working on a canvas of the rolling treetops and another day she may be adding floral flourishes to the exposed beams of the porte cochere.
MMI Corporate Director of Sales & Marketing Lindsay Hamm states, “The nearby Penland School of Craft is world class. And, to recognize this asset’s little dot on this big earth, we thought the establishment of an Artist ON Residency program would honor the beauty Penland has provided to folks around the world in a uniquely Swiss way.”