Hotel Confidential

The Annex of the Royal Hotel, concept image from Room 101, Shelter Bay (Sarah Cooper & Rob Southcott) & Margaret Pryde. Hotel photo by doublespace photography.

Hotel Confidential

April 17 – 19, 2026
Opening Reception: April 17, 7:30 – 9pm | Reserve tickets
Exhibition: April 18 – 19, 11am – 5pm | Reserve tickets
Annex Building, The Royal Hotel, Prince Edward County

Hotel Confidential is a three-day contemporary art exhibition that transforms the Annex Building of The Royal Hotel into a series of temporary site-specific installations. Sixteen artists have been invited to create new works within the building’s guest rooms and shared spaces, reimagining the hotel as both setting and metaphor.

Working across disciplines including installation, sculpture, performance, textile, biosonification, photography and radio, the artists use the architecture of a hotel as a stage for artistic experimentation and unexpected encounters.

With its title a playful nod to pulp novels and cinema noir, Hotel Confidential invites audiences into immersive artworks that reveal hidden narratives and explore the hotel as a space of fleeting encounters, private worlds, and passing lives.

Participating Artists:

Room 101
Shelter Bay (Sarah Cooper and Rob Southcott) and Margaret Pryde

Room 102
Bay Woodyard, Clara Polanco Talavera, and Nanotopia (Tosca Terán and Andrei Gravelle)

Room 103
Dainesha Nugent-Palache, curated by Joséphine Denis and presented by BAND Gallery

Room 104
Christopher House, Live Durational Dance Performance

Hallways & Stairwells
LeuWebb Projects (Christine Leu and Alan Webb)

Radio Hotel Confidential
Chip Yarwood, Live Broadcast Performance

Barlow Room
Spark Box Studio (Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping) and State Goods (Joel Gregorio)
Note: The Barlow Room installation additional hours April 4 – 26, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am – 5pm.

Learn more about the artists

Curators: Christina Zeidler and Stacey Sproule. Photography Tom Feiler

Hotel Confidential is a collaboration between the Prince Edward County Arts Council and The Royal Hotel, and is curated by Christina Zeidler and Stacey Sproule.

About Prince Edward County Arts Council

County Arts is the arts service organization that provides support and advocacy for the artists in this region. With the highest concentration of artists in Ontario, and the 7th highest in all of Canada, the County has a thriving and unique arts scene which contributes significantly to the local economy, generating direct and indirect economic benefits of over $1.6 million/year (according to the federal Culture, Arts, Sports and Heritage Economic Impact Model). As County Arts is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, Hotel Confidential provides the organization with an opportunity to build bridges with the national and international contemporary art world, and invite audiences in from all over to experience this unique collaboration.

More on County arts here: countyarts.ca

About The Royal Hotel

Built in 1881 (and boarded up in 2008), The Royal Hotel is a former railway hotel on Picton Main Street, Prince Edward County’s most populous town. After a six-year restoration, The Royal Hotel reopened in 2021 as a 33-room boutique hotel, with bakery, restaurant, and spa. The Hotel practices a culture of care, and craft and tactile materiality are centred in every aspect of its design. It was awarded one Michelin Key in 2024 and 2025, garnering international attention. The separate Annex building, which served as the horse stables for the historic Hotel, is the main site of this project.

More on the Royal Hotel here: www.theroyalhotel.ca

Partners and Support

Institutional partner:
Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University

Presenting partner:
BAND (Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue)

Organizational partner:
Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre

This event has been financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.

Annex Building, The Royal Hotel
6 Ross Street
Picton, ON K0K 2T0

Image Descriptions:
1. Dusk view of the Royal Hotel’s Annex building, with trees framing the shot. From the balcony is a vintage hotel key superimposed larger than life.
2. Curators Christina and Stacey are seated in front of a bed in one of the Royal’s hotel rooms. A quilted map of the County hangs on the wall behind the bed. Christina is wearing a dark shirt with white hearts, glasses, and is smiling. Stacey is wearing a green shirt with a leopard print jacket over top, and she is smiling.