Atelier Sul Mare, Sicily, Italy

Hotels around the world are tapping local artists to make their work an essential element of a new breed of hostelry. Hotels have always had artwork, but today the concept is being stretched to new limits, as boutique hotels replace hospitality-as-theater with hospitality-as-installation-art. Around the globe, hoteliers are working with artists (if they’re not already artists themselves) to create environments with a sense of style and authenticity — in explicit retort to the boutique hotel formula, with its contemporary furniture and dimmed hallways.

The Colombe D’Or, St Paul de Vence, Provence, France: An art hotel where great artists like Picasso and Matisse really did hang out, and left their work for future guests to enjoy.

Hotel du Petit Moulin, Paris, France: French designer Christian Lacroix has transformed the interior of this former bakery.

Fox hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark: Manga cartoons, street art, whimsical fantasy creations or graphic designs adorn the rooms at Fox Hotel.

Atelier Sul Mare, Sicily, Italy: Sitting right on Sicily’s coast at Castel di Tusa, Atelier Sul Mare sets out to be a hotel-museum where guests wake up among the art works.

Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada: The 37 individually artist-designed rooms are not the only draw of Toronto’s oldest continuously operating hotel. It’s home to a buzzing cultural scene, hosting gig nights in the bar, regular exhibitions and has a lively cafe and various function rooms.

Propeller Island Hotel, Berlin, Germany: One of several art hotels in Berlin, at Propeller Island even the hotel music is part of the art experience.

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, United States: The hotel is housed in what were five abandoned tobacco and bourbon warehouses and displays works of art in elevators, courtyards, roof, and even the toilets.

Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, United States: The hotel’s design is the creation of Julian Schnabel, whose painting Suddenly Last Summer (Picasso Painting No. 2) hangs above the fireplace.

The Hotel Chelsea, New York, United States: One of the original ‘art hotels’. In the 50s and 60s artists, writers and musicians took up cheap lodgings here, leaving works of art in lieu of rent, which decorate the hotel today. The roll call includes Sir Arthur C Clarke, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Miller, Dee Dee Ramone, Larry Rivers, Dylan Thomas, and Tennessee Williams.

Hotel des Arts, San Francisco, United States: Leading emerging artists from the around the world were given full artistic control to turn rooms into individual art spaces.