Here’s a way to get into a blockbuster art show — stay at a nearby hotel and get a fast track VIP ticket.
The Ritz-Carlton Atlanta and Ritz-Carlton Buckhead hotels in Atlanta are offering special packages to the show on the life and work of Diana, Princess of Wales. Direct from the Althorp Estate in England, ancestral home of the Spencer family for 500 years, “Diana: A Celebration” is on exhibit through June 13, 2010 at the Atlanta Civic Center.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is Diana’s storybook wedding gown and 25-foot train, seen by more than 750 million television viewers on her wedding day in 1981. The exhibit also includes Spencer family jewels and artwork; childhood home movies; family photo albums and her tiny toy car; 28 outfits from Versace, Valentino and other top designers; tributes by Sir Elton John; and two diamond tiaras.
Hotel and exhibit packages begin at $229. In addition to two VIP tickets to the show, the package includes an audio tour narrated by Charles Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana; overnight valet parking; and roundtrip transportation to the Atlantic Civic Center.
If you are a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, then head to the elegant Hotel Chesterfield in the equally elegant Mayfair section of London, for the special fast-track VIP ticket package to the show at the Royal Academy of Arts.
The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters, is a landmark exhibition including more than 35 original letters, which are rarely exhibited because they are so fragile. There also are nearly 100 Van Gogh paintings and drawings that express the principal themes found within the correspondence.
The Hotel Chesterfield package includes a full daily English breakfast and a framed souvenir postcard of the exhibit.
I have stayed both at the modern and elegant Ritz-Carlton Atlanta and at the traditional and elegant Hotel Chesterfield. Princess Diana and Vincent Van Gogh would have been as impressed as I was by the service and decor at both.
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