New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/arts/design/henry-buhls-collection-of-hands-photographs-at-sothebys.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=todayspaper

By Carol Vogel

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is getting into the hotel business.

The museum has formed a partnership with the real estate developer Buckingham Companies, whose president, Bradley Chambers, is a museum trustee. Lisa Freiman, chairwoman of contemporary art at the museum, has commissioned art for the public spaces of the Alexander, a hotel Buckingham is building in downtown Indianapolis.

In exchange the developer will pay the museum a curatorial fee of $350,000. Jorge Pardo will design the hotel’s bar lounge, including the furniture, lighting and surface treatments, Ms. Freiman said. She has also asked Alyson Shotz, the sculptor and installation artist, to create a floor-to-ceiling abstract sculpture for the entrance to the hotel, which will open next January. In a plaza outside there will be a colorful LED sculpture by Jaume Plensa.

“These are artists I’ve been following for a while now,” Ms. Freiman said. “Some are local, others are international, everywhere from Kansas to Barcelona.”