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Hotel launches renovations with live art
Released: 6/23/2006
By: Hotel & Motel Magazine
 BIRMINGHAM, AL - The Tutwiler Hotel's busiest weekend of the year is the third weekend in June, when thousands of Birmingham residents and visitors line up on Park Place, just outside of the hotel courtyard, to pass through the gates into the city's big annual music festival.
With a captive audience at their door, the hotel knew it would be the perfect weekend to spread the word about the planned $7. 2 million restoration project that was scheduled to begin the following week.
Management could have hung a banner or passed out goodies with some messaging, but instead they decided to embrace the spirit of the festival atmosphere by hiring an artist to tell the hotel's story with performance art happening during festival hours.
Birmingham artist Michael Swann painted a giant portrait of the historic hotel on an 8- by 10-foot canvas hung on scaffolding positioned only a few feet from the festival entrance. A banner above read "Pardon Our Preservation: Renovations Under way This Summer.
"The community relations stunt tied into the hotel's advertising campaign, "Pardon Our Preservation," which recently began rolling out in local and national trade publications. The advertisement features an oil painting of the hotel and a worker on a ladder carefully preserving the work of art. A large version of the advertisement sat at street level for passersby looking for more information about renovations.
"The idea behind the campaign is to position The Tutwiler as a historic work of art," said William Murray, president of Integral Hospitality Solutions, which bought the hotel in March. "We want people to know that the renovation project as focused on preserving The Tutwiler's historic beauty and restoring the hotel to its original grandeur. "
This year, The Tutwiler's waiting list for City Stages weekend was more than 100 people deep. Not only visitors, but suburban residents who flock to downtown for the three-day City Stages festival, book their rooms at The Tutwiler up to a year in advance. The hotel stands just adjacent to Linn Park, where the festival's main stage is headquartered.
"The live art event was a great way to show the City Stages fans at the hotel that we were interested and involved in the event," said hotel General Manager Bryan Groover, "and it made our guests and tens of thousands of City Stages patrons aware that The Tutwiler is about to be a whole new hotel. "
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