While there is no official definition, everyone seems to have something that comes to mind when they think about hotel art. On a whole it refers to those generic art pieces on hotel walls designed not to invoke any real emotion from an individual looking at it. Basically, it won’t offend anyone but makes the room look less empty. Playing it safe.

College admissions spaces have an unfortunate tendency to lean the same way. Your lobby and waiting room walls are frequently covered in historical images of the old gentleman who gave a lot of money to the school and has since died or bragging point articles from years before your current prospective students were even born. The items shown in the admissions office do not relate to the prospective student body. You have turned an opportunity in your space into something that has little or no impact on your visitors. Even if you have strong photos and images on your walls, you usually are not telling the stories behind them.

It is a rare occasion that you find a hotel where the art on the walls is reflective of the culture that surrounds the hotel. On a recent trip to the University of Vermont in Burlington, I noticed the image that you see below as I got off the elevator.

This is an image of a steamship that was used on Lake Champlain (which the hotel looks right out at) in the 1940’s and is now housed at a nearby museum. The plaque (while a bit small) encourages you to go visit the museum and see the ship for yourself. The Marriott is using its hallway decorations as a way to bring the life of the greater Burlington area into your hotel experience. What could you use in your admissions space to bring the life of your campus and surrounding area into it?
This particular Marriott takes their decorating to another level and showcases an additional element that we encourage our clients to do for their own spaces. Changing your photos out from season to season can provide you with a way to update your space and include images relevant to the particular time on campus. Check out the image below to see an easy way to artfully display changeable images.

If your walls could speak, what are they saying to your prospective students? Are you doing anything like this for your visitors?

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