The new AC Hotel by Marriott coming to downtown Spartanburg in September 2017 will feature influential selections created by students and faculty from the historic Black Mountain College. The current plan design for the hotel, which may change as the design is translated to reality, will showcase approximately 70 works drawn from The Johnson Collection (TJC), which include paintings, prints, sculptures and textile art, said Lynne Blackman, PR and publications coordinator for TJC.
Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Black Mountain College, an experimental liberal arts college, was owned and operated by the faculty. During its existence from 1933-1957, the college eliminated normal curricula and 
integrated a more hands-on approach to learning, where everyone participated in maintaining the community. The progressive college housed artists who would later become some of the most influential in the modern art world, according to Erin Corrales-Diaz, TJC curator of the Black Mountain College collection.
The Black Mountain College selections will be displayed in the hotel’s public spaces showcasing a modern aesthetic with a Southern connection, Blackman said. Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Noland, Robert Motherwell, Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Ilya Bolotwsky, Ruth Asawa and Esteban Vicente are among the artists whose work will be featured.
The Johnson Collection Gallery in downtown Spartanburg sponsors regular rotating exhibitions dedicated to fine art of the American South from the private collection. There are currently about 25 objects created by Black Mountain College students and faculty on display at the gallery. “A Process of Learning” is on view through the end of May, Blackman said.
Construction for OTO Development’s AC Hotel Spartanburg is underway and expected to open in 2017 at the corner of West Main Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue.
