Contemporary Art & Ultra-Contemporary Technology Converge On Celebrity Cruises

The artwork cruise lines display on their vessels has always been truly extraordinary and some of the finest modern art at sea is found on Celebrity Cruises’ ships. While other cruise lines have offered art tours, usually with audio loaded on an iPod®, Celebrity is playing off the series of hip, high-tech “firsts” it has introduced in recent months by debuting the industry’s first self-guided art tours on an iPad®. Some of the first passengers to experience the iPad tour are pictured here.

Earlier this year, Celebrity introduced the first “Celebrity iLounge”–a modern lounge equipped with MacBook® workstations, a retail space featuring Apple products and accessories, and an enrichment center where certified staff present a variety of courses and offer guests tips on Mac and iPod usage. Celebrity Cruises is itself an iPad pioneer, having become the first cruise line to present a menu and wine list on an iPad when it introduced its engaging “Qsine” specialty restaurant earlier this year.

A new addition to Celebrity’s extensive “Celebrity Life” series of onboard entertainment and enrichment activities, the iPads on each Solstice Class ship house floor plans of every deck on the ship, with select works of art flagged on every deck. A guest simply touches the screen to select the work of art he or she would like to learn more about, and the screen transitions to full details about the piece, including the title of the work, artist’s name, medium used, description and image. In addition to the art tour application, the iPads also present guests with the opportunity to explore digital versions of each Solstice-Class vessel’s in-stateroom art catalogs.

“The response to the Celebrity iLounge and to the iPad menus in Qsine was so positive, we knew our guests would relish yet another opportunity to capitalize on the latest technology in an entertaining, enriching way,” said Celebrity’s Senior VP of Hotel Operations Lisa Lutoff-Perlo. “Celebrity’s ‘Designed for you’ platform is built on our commitment to listen to our guests and offer experiences inspired by them and their sophisticated travel desires.”

With more than 14,000 works of original, contemporary art on its three Solstice Class ships alone, Celebrity Cruises is the holder of one of the world’s largest corporate collections of contemporary art. Throughout the ships, a vast range of mediums is represented, including glass, acrylics, oils, photography, digital prints, video, etchings, sculptures and collages. Approximately 15 percent of the art on each Solstice Class ship is site-specific or commissioned artwork, such as the signature living trees in enormous vases suspended within the Solstice Class ships’ sweeping, airy Grand Foyers.

Celebrity’s new iPad art tours will be available on Celebrity Solstice beginning Aug 15, and on Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Equinox beginning August 21. The tours currently are in English, and also will be offered in Spanish by the end of this year. Celebrity will add German and French versions in 2011. For more information, visit CelebrityCruises.com.