AN ART-FILLED ADVENTURE: Pamphlets and brochures and travel sites frequently sell travelers on wowza attractions that zip you around or take you across water or entertain you in some unforgettable way, but those attractions are very typically permanent to the place. We do adore taking those in, but seasoned adventurers always keep an eye on the ephemeral, too, those happenings that only alight in a city for a week, a year, or a few months. Major art exhibits are at the top of that roster, and whenever a traveler makes for a destination to see a particular painting or series of sculptures, they're heeding both the ticking clock and a tradition of people journeying to see art. It's a tradition that's been around... well, just about forever, and definitely in the long-ago eras when museums and galleries were far rarer.
JOIE DE VIVRE... is honoring that lengthy, come/stay/art-it-up tradition with its tie-in stayover package to the "Keith Haring: The Political Line" exhibit at San Francisco's de Young Museum. Two tickets to the show, overnight accomos, and a Haring-esque journal are part of the deal at eight area hotels.
THE EXHIBIT "features more than 130 works of art from the iconic pop-art master, including sculptures, large scale paintings, and subway drawings accompanied by entries from Haring's diaries." A hotel rep goes onto say that a number of pieces have not been exhibited since Mr. Haring's death in 1990.
ON SEEING ART: We can get a bit cavalier, in this age of cultural bounty, when paintings are very often not too far away, for us to see, think about, and enjoy. But our art-loving predecessors went to the big art, and you can too, with a stay at Hotel Carlton, Hotel Vitale, Galleria Park Hotel, Hotel del Sol, Hotel Rex, Hotel Kabuki, The Laurel Inn, and the Phoenix Hotel. Depending on date and place, packages kick off at $169. As for the exhibit? "Keith Haring: The Political Line" is on at the de Young through Feb. 16, 2015.
