Florida: American Modernisms at The Alfond Inn at Rollins

September 17, 2021. Winter Park, Florida – A stay at The Alfond Inn at Rollins, recently ranked as one of the Top Resort Hotels in Florida in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards 2021, is an immersion in both cutting-edge luxury and contemporary art. It’s the only hotel in the United States that serves as the extension of an art museum, the Rollins Museum of Art (RMA), which is part of neighboring Rollins College, which also owns The Alfond Inn at Rollins.

The hotel exhibits a rotating installation of paintings, photographs, sculptures and mixed-media works of art from The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at RMA.

The new installation at The Alfond Inn at Rollins is in conjunction with the opening of the RMA exhibit, American Modernisms at the Rollins Museum of Art, on September 18, 2021. It’s an exhibition that explores the multivalent meanings of the term “American modernism” in the context of the collection of the Rollins Museum of Art.

From the intensely observed realism of the Ashcan School to the freewheeling exploration of the 1970s, American artists have used the tools and techniques of modernist art to inspect, reflect upon, interrogate, and change the world around them. Rather than telling one story of American modernism, the collection reveals many such narratives, many of which often overlap and even contradict one another.

The exhibition at RMA includes 32 works of art ranging from 1905 to 2013 (several of which are part of The Alfond Collection). The artworks recently installed at The Alfond Inn at Rollins that relate to the exhibition range from 2015 to 2020. The exhibition runs from September 18, 2021 to May 8, 2022.

“The Alfond Inn is an extension of the Rollins Museum of Art and a meaningful outpost for engagement of the broader Winter Park community and visitors from near and far,” said Abigail Ross Goodman, Consulting Curator, The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art. “In dialogue with Luce Fellow Grant Hamming’s exhibition at the Rollins Museum of Art, American Modernisms, the summer 2021 reinstallation of the hotel was focused on related objects that help to expand the discussion around the various ‘modernisms’ in play today. In particular, the new installation highlights artworks that demonstrate how abstraction in the present can be loaded with information and intent.”

The exhibition American Modernisms at the Rollins Museum of Art is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that includes a scholarly essay by Dr. Grant Hamming, Guest Curator of the exhibition, as well as an essay by Abigail Ross Goodman, Consulting Curator of The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art.

The customary Happy Hour Tours of the art collection will be held virtually this fall, on October 6, November 3, and December 1, 2021 at 6pm on the museum’s Facebook page. Grab a cocktail and join the guides for a “spirited” and relaxed evening virtual tour of works from The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art. Tour themes change every month and spotlight different craft cocktails from Hamilton’s Kitchen. Cocktail recipes will be shared online in advance for anyone wishing to make them at home! Happy Hour Tours are free to join. https://web.rollins.edu/rma/events/index.html

Fall rates at The Alfond Inn at Rollins start at $299.

The Alfond Inn at Rollins

A member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts L.V.X.℠ collection, The Alfond Inn at Rollins has a AAA Four Diamond Rating and is managed by Olympia Hotel Management, an innovative leader in hospitality. Owned by Rollins College, a private coeducational liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida, The Alfond Inn at Rollins opened in August 2013 and directs net operating income to The Alfond Scholars Program. The award-winning Hamilton’s Kitchen restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner at the 112-room boutique hotel, which has a pool, fitness center and 10,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. It is located 15 minutes from downtown Orlando and 30 minutes from Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport. The Alfond Inn at Rollins, 300 East New England Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789. 407-998-8090. www.thealfondinn.com