Lon Michels, Down Town Ladies, Acrylis on fiberglass mannequins, acrylis on umbrellas and acrylic on shoes, acrylic on wood base, 14'-20' high, base: 48" x 36", 2019
Catherine de’ Vigri was born in 1413 to an aristocratic family in Bologna, Italy. She eventually was called by the Roman Catholic Church, founding the monastic order of Poor Clares, and lived out her life as a spiritual servant. Despite her asceticism, Kate was also a skilled and avid painter, eventually being canonized as St. Catherine in 1712 by Pope Clement VII as the patron saint of artists.
This historical background might be illuminating to those cruising along East Kilbourn Street, expecting the old Intercontinental but receiving sight of the new Saint Kate hotel. The exterior block lettering “S-A-I-N-T K-A-T-E,” wrapped around the building’s corner provides only superficial hints of the substantial changes within.
Is this the big thing we’ve all been waiting for? It seems we might be embarking on a new age of personalized experience. The degree of individualization in our lives is eroding precipitously, possibly enough to reverse the proverbial pendulum. The things we once actively shopped for in fishbowl-like malls are now passively received in sad packages. I get full dinners shipped to me in brown boxes via a brown UPS box truck. Everything from forming bowling leagues to forming lifelong relationships are dissocialized by efficient computer applications. Without the unexpected connectivity of social interplay, what are the end results really worth?
In these matters, I regularly refer back to James Gleick’s prescient 2009 article in The New York Times Magazine, “Keeping it Real,” about the market value of the Magna Carta. Long article short, he proposed that the value of that original document was not tethered to its uniqueness nor lack thereof, but to both. Its value, he noted, was based on a ratio of original experience (the actual document) to its copies (reproductions of it on the internet). In other words, the more artificial the world becomes, the more meaning authentic experiences have. Humans need such interactivity; if they don’t get it, they will create it virtually and inauthentically on social media, or through Pinterest or Etsy.
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Few experiences are as consonant with unexpected movement through the world as a hotel stay. It’s where one resides when caught outside of daily routine. And still, a night in a hotel is often as ritualized and patterned as going through airport security. Given this, it seems a fairly reasonable proposition for someone to create a hotel in 2019 that is surprising, irregular, stuffed with handmade objects and as eccentric as the community of which it occupies.
The Saint Kate is flush with works of fine art, yes, but it’s not simply a static collection of treasures and trophies. It’s an immersive and curated mix of art, functional objects and creative spaces that activates sightlines and modifies behaviors. From Paul Druecke’s welcome rug at the main check-in desk to the ukuleles and drawing supplies in each guest room, Art–with a capital “A”– presides almost divinely over everything.
The artistic interventions at Saint Kate are a savvy mix of internationally recognized makers like Terry Winters, Damien Hirst and the unmistakable Deborah Butterfield, whose driftwood horse resides conspicuously in the lobby, and literally hundreds of local and regional creators. Installation artist Jason Yi’s billowing installation snakes up the main stairwell, encouraging visitors to the second floor where art rings the spaces around the Aria Café and Bar and the Giggly champagne bar.
The hotel features four dedicated art galleries whose programming will rotate regularly, as well as an in-house theater troupe which will perform scripted and non-scripted material in the Arc Theatre and in less conventional spots around the hotel.
The inaugural exhibition “Downtown” in the Museum of Wisconsin Art DTN features work embracing the cultural vitality of Milwaukee’s creative enclave. Local historical documentarian Adam Carr’s rotating postcard display and Mark Klassen’s Poet Phone stand out in a show with a lot of standouts. An adjacent gallery offers a brilliant show by Brooklyn-based artist Lisa Beck, full of reflective abstract optical wonders that energetically contrast the gritty local art next door.
And there is so much more; it is difficult by nature to describe the terms of such an experience piece-by-piece. The Saint Kate has created something truly unique, transcending any preconceived notion of a hotel; they’ve created an immersive sensual arts funhouse, where one may stay after their retinas get fatigued. All of which makes the hotel a work of art in its own right: a 10-story sculptural assemblage that you’ll have to visit to truly understand.
Betting on culture, art and individualized experiences in the land of breweries and tailgating? The Saint Kate is indeed a leap of faith; a field of cultural dreams amidst the barley and hops. I can hear the whispers that must have been in the Marcus’ ears, “if you build it, they will come.” They definitely should—and will—if our community has a collective soul, and if the patron saint of art has any earthly powers at her disposal.
