Original Article by Mary Louise Schumacher for JSOnline.com

Marcus Hotels has decided to expand its artist-in-residence program, which it launched at the Pfister Hotel in 2009. Similar programs will be implemented in The Marcus Corporation’s Hotel Phillips in Kansas City, Mo., and the Skirvin Hilton in Oaklahoma City.

The Pfister’s annual program includes a studio space near the hotel’s lobby and a stipend for about a year. Hotel guests are able to stop in, see and talk to an artist at work. The artist is also there to show guests the Pfister’s collection of Victorian art, one of the largest such collections in a hotel in the U.S.

The programs at The Pfister and Skirvin Hilton will feature the art studio-gallery space, while the chosen artist at the Hotel Philips will be asked to wander the hotel and record the happenings of the day with a sketch pad. A new artist is selected each year and the application process open to working visual artists.

Artists who have been chosen for the Pfister’s program include Reginald Baylor, Shelby Keefe, Katie Musolff and, most recently, Timothy Westbrook. Trey Bryan was the first artist to be selected as part of the program at the Hotel Phillips and Romy Owens was recently selected as the first artist in residence at the Skirvin Hilton hotel.