21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City room ( 21c Museum Hotels photo)

AccorHotels will acquire 85% of 21c Museum Hotels with its 11 boutique properties that are currently open and under development across the United States. It will join AccorHotel’s MGallery collection of boutique hotels. This will be MGallery’s entry into the North American market.

21c Museum Hotel Durham Lobby ( 21c Museum Hotels photo)

21c Museum Hotels was founded in 2006 in Louisville by philanthropists and contemporary art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. The duo rehabilitated a series of 19th-century warehouses in Louisville, Kentucky’s downtown arts and theatre district to open the first 21c Museum Hotel.  Today the company operates eight properties in Bentonville, Cincinnati, Durham, Kansas City, Lexington, Louisville, Nashville and Oklahoma City. Three more are being developed in Des Moines, Miami and Chicago. The two co-founders will retain a 15% stake in the company and will remain closely involved in providing creative guidance and support of the unique combination of art, design and hospitality. The corporate headquarters of 21c will remain in Louisville.

21c Museum is one of the largest contemporary art museum in the US and North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to art of the 21st century. The exhibition s and programmes are free to the public and are accessible 24 hours, every day of the week. The museum will continue to be led by President and CEO Craig Greenberg.