Charlotte Travel Guide

Charlotte is a city rich in history, diversity and culture and visitors to Charlotte hotels can experience all that and more with a visit to the Mint Museum of Art – one of the city’s most prestigious institutions.

Visitors staying at Charlotte hotels will discover that The Mint Museum of Art was the region’s first branch of the United States Mint, and it coined $5 million in gold from 1836 to the outbreak of the Civil War. A grassroots community effort in the early 1930s saved the old Federal-style building from demolition and relocated it to its present site on Randolph Road, not far from such Charlotte hotels as the Embassy Suites Golf Resort & Spa. The museum formally opened its doors to the public in 1936, when it became North Carolina’s very first art museum.

A visit today will reveal to guests of Charlotte hotels a rich and diverse resource with noted collections of American art, pre-Columbian art, American and European ceramics, American decorative arts, historic costumes and accessories, African art, Asian art, historic maps, contemporary art and photography. In short, folks staying at Charlotte hotels will find a great deal to enjoy during their tour of this remarkable museum.

Enhancing the permanent collections, visitors from Charlotte hotels have the opportunity to enjoy an active schedule of changing exhibitions and education programs. The Mint Museum of Art originates and hosts major national and international exhibitions, and features a variety of public programs. Guests from Charlotte hotels can take advantage of daily tours, seminars, lectures, family day festivals, and adult and children’s art classes. For those visitors from Charlotte hotels who are so inclined, the museum’s resources include two research libraries, a slide and videotape library, teacher training programs, in-school programs and a facility rental program.

Guests of such Charlotte hotels as the Embassy Suites Golf Resort & Spa can find out more about The Mint Museum of Art by visiting www.mintmuseum.org. For hotel reservations, go to www.embassysuitesconcord.com.

Visitors to Charlotte hotels come to town to relax, have fun and get away from the pressures of daily life. Guests of such Charlotte hotels as the Embassy Suites Golf Resort & Spa have a variety of choices to make when it comes to finding things to do and, as of 2010, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is one of the most recent establishments to open its doors to the public.

The museum facility itself is enough to impress guests from Charlotte hotels before they even get into the exhibits. Designed by renowned Swiss architect Mario Botta, the structure is absolutely awe-inspiring. Visitors from Charlotte hotels are greeted by a soaring glass atrium, vaulted skylights and a beautiful terracotta exterior. Most impressive is the fourth floor, where guests of Charlotte hotels will find that the floor extends from the core of the building.

When visitors to Charlotte hotels go to the Bechtler Museum, they are entering a world where some of the most prominent and important works from artists of the 20th century are displayed. Guests from Charlotte hotels are treated to the works of such artists as Warhol, Ernst, Picasso, Hepworth, and many others. Bechtler Museum is especially significant, because many of the works there are privately held by the Bechtler family in Switzerland.

Visitors of Charlotte hotels have access to the museum every day of the week except for Tuesday. Guests staying in Charlotte hotels can take self-guided audio tours, or join one of the daily guided tours. Family tours are offered for those families from Charlotte hotels who want their children to experience art, as well as group and school tours. The museum also has a shop where guests of Charlotte hotels can pick up gifts, and an onsite café for snacks and lunches.

Guests of Charlotte hotels like the Embassy Suites Golf Resort & Spa can learn more about the museum by visiting www.bechtler.org. To make hotel reservations, go to www.embassysuitesconcord.com.