Where
travelers once held photos of Flat Stanley in unusual places, photographers now
shoot photos of a humble red chair. Long considered simply a place to
rest one’s buttocks, the lowly wooden chair has been elevated to celebrity
status, and is being welcomed at inns and B&Bs throughout America.
It’s all part of a consciousness raising experiment among innkeepers, and
during the Thanksgiving week, November 26 through 29, the chair is a guest in
Asheville, NC and the Sweet Biscuit Inn. Look for innkeepers Claudia
& Christian Hickl shooting images of the Red Chair at the Vance Monument,
before the backdrop of the Biltmore Estate and one of the numerous Asheville
breweries, as well as the Sweet Biscuit Inn.
Throughout 2012 and early
2013, the Red Chair developed a personality of its own being photographed by
innkeepers in communities from one end of New England to the other.
Starting in Cape Cod, the Red Chair journeyed throughout the six New England
states on a nine month tour. Follow the Red Chair’s travels on www.RedChairTravels.com where inspiring photos of the Red Chair can be seen from
beaches to bandstands. Throughout 2013 and early 2014 photos and stories
from the Red Chair’s journey to nearly twenty states will be added to the
website as they are captured.
It all started in winter 2012 with a
single image. Woods Hole Inn
innkeeper Beth Colt posted a picture on Facebook of her simple red chair
perched on the ice behind her house and watched her page light up with
“likes”. The picture was shared on the Facebook page of Julie Ann Cromer,
a photographer from Santa Barbara, CA, who was inspired by the image to visit
the Woods Hole Inn and took an amazing second photo of the chair on a local
beach. This inspired Colt to share the chair with other innkeepers, sending it
on a journey through towns and villages throughout Cape Cod last spring and
then throughout the six New England states last fall and winter. As
innkeepers all over New England were inspired by the chair, it has taken on a
personality of its own.
“Now it’s time for the chair to
branch out,” expressed Beth Colt. “Innkeepers across the country are
clamoring to host the chair, so it’s time to send it coast-to-coast in every
corner of America the Beautiful. There would be no Red Chair without the
generosity of innkeepers and B&Bs. It’s a barn-raising of sorts; the
sharing of a piece of Americana,” concluded Colt.
Stories from the Red Chair’s travels
have been chronicled on blogs at each stop throughout its journey. Look
for tales of the Red Chair’s travels to the Sweet Biscuit Inn on www.facebook.com/SweetBiscuitInn.
In a way, its innkeepers’ life story mirrors the voyages of the Red
Chair. “There are so many places across the globe we called home,”
explained Christian Hickl. “Before discovering the culturally eclectic
and open-minded city of Asheville, we had lived in Germany, our country of
origin, in New England, home to the Red Chair, and in Provence, France.”
Prior to coming to Asheville the Red Chair had found shelter in another North
Carolina B&B, the beautiful Inn on Mill Creek in Old Fort, NC. Its
next stop will be Tennessee at the Creekwalk Inn in Cosby, TN.
For a compilation of these blogs, visit
http://www.redchairtravels.com/blog.html.
For a complete view of Red Chair photos, visit http://www.redchairtravels.com and
get ready to be inspired. To learn more about the Sweet Biscuit Inn visit
www.SweetBiscuitInn.com or call
(828) 250-0170.
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