Building Stories
By Jeff Martin
Sometimes a place becomes a museum by accident. This takes the perfect mix of history, people, luck, notoriety, and course, art. One of the best examples of this rare occurrence is the legendary Chelsea Hotel (officially the Hotel Chelsea) in New York City.
For well over 100 years, countless writers, artists, and musicians have called it home for various lengths of time. Leonard Cohen sang about it. Andy Warhol made a movie there. Sid Vicious died there.
Notoriously short on cash, many artists (struggling at the time) traded work for rent. That work (by the likes of Julian Schnabel and Tulsa native Joe Andoe) would often end up in the lobby, a makeshift gallery of sorts.
Acclaimed author Fiona Davis writes novels about famous New York buildings (Grand Central Station, The Dakota). She recently turned her attention to the Chelsea Hotel for her latest book, The Chelsea Girls. We checked in with her to talk all about it.
Listen to Museum Confidential here:
NOTE: The horse painting in the lobby photo is by Tulsa artist Joe Andoe.
