A Decor Double Entendre

More than 400 art students, models, and politicians mingled with hospitality industry executives last Thursday to celebrate the opening of the newly redesigned Renaissance M Street Hotel in downtown Washington (which we told you about here). The event’s theme was based on the fact that the hotel is the first of eight new Marriott Renaissance Hotels set to open in the next two years; other locations include New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, and Shanghai.

“Our goal was to do something that no one else has done in Washington, to take the event beyond a hotel opening and have it be the soiree of the summer,” said Carrie Foster, vice president of event management firm Linda Roth Associates, who worked with Marriott Hotels director of public relations Mark Indre and Renaissance M Street director of events Michael Hennessy to plan the event.Jazz sounds from D.C. native Marcus Johnson entertained the large crowd, dressed predominantly in the requested “summer whites” attire, as they ate and drank and admired six vignettes that aimed to capture (and embellish) the spirit of the new Renaissance locales, while also incorporating inventive takes on Renaissance art.

The Miami room, for example, featured a live model in a clamshell liberally re-creating Botticelli’s "The Birth of Venus" amidst a sand-filled scene. In the Hollywood Room, guests could have their pictures taken with their hands in memory foam a la Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre or stand next to a sunglasses-wearing Mona Lisa. The “Dream State” dessert lounge featured milk and cookies, a signature Renaissance bed, and a video preview of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s fall Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz exhibits. Students from the Corcoran College of Art & Design videotaped the celebration, and their images were broadcast live on a series of plasma televisions throughout the space.

Planned in conjunction with Niche Media’s Jayne Sandman and the Corcoran Gallery’s Tabatha Flores, the event walked a thin line between zany and tasteful. “We wanted the vignettes to represent a refined tongue-in-cheek—we didn’t want to do anything too silly, but we did want to bring the art into the modern day with a clever approach,” Foster said.

Guests included former Virginia governor Mark Warner, CNN correspondents Suzanne Malveaux and Ed Henry, and comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory. The crowd left by 9:30 p.m., with gift bags in hand that included a free month’s membership at the Corcoran and a complimentary night’s stay at the Renaissance M Street.