INDONESIA & US : TRAVEL -TRANSFORMATIONAL- TRUMPET

TRANSFORMATIONAL travel - or having experience with lasting impact - seems like a reach for hotels to espouse.

But the Potato Head Studios property, in Seminyak on the Indonesian island of Bali, aims to encourage creative renewal among both guests and locals.

The resort organizes 168 rooms in a raised structure, creating a ground-level pavilion for music and performance events and workshops on recycled design.

The resort joins a growing list hotels going beyond art on walls and D.Js in the lobbies to court the creative crowd. Both residents and travelers are being welcomed to tap their imagination through things like hands-on pottery classes, design workshops and art therapy.

The art-filled 21c Museum Hotels group, which has locations in 10 American cities and plans to open Chicago this year, has used artistic programing as a welcome mat for local residents.

The 21c Museum Hotel Louisville Literary Arts agency to host a workshop in erotic writing over a series of four Sundays.

Similarly, Ace Hotels has cultivated the culturally curious with art exhibitions and concerts. Its newest location, the Ace Hotel Kyoto, opening in Japan in April, plans to hold monthly workshops  in Japanese language and culture and will house a cinema devoted to Japanese cult and classic films with English subtitles.

Some resorts use creative programming as a means of cultural exploration. Others incorporate creative classes as part of a holistic wellness approach.

Opened in 2018, Blackberry Mountain, the sibling resort to Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn, houses an Art Studio offering opportunities to throw pots, build ceramics, paint, sketch, weave baskets or learn textile arts.

This year, there are also periodic multiday events featuring professional artists like the potter Keith Kreeger and the glass artist Richard Jolley.

The World Students Society thanks author Elaine Glusac.