300+ artworks, six artists and one danish  hotel

How Cay Collective and COPI, filled CORI Hotel, a restored seaside hotel, with original art

COPI, the Danish real estate and design company behind CORI Hornbæk Hotel, reached out to Cay Collective while working on the transformation of one of Hornbæk's most iconic buildings. Originally built as a seaside hotel in the 1930s, the building had spent decades as a hospital and rehabilitation centre. Now, almost 90 years later, it was being brought back to where it started: life by the sea.
And when you are restoring a hotel like this, you don't fill the walls with just anything.

"They understood the brief right away, and the art curation has already gotten a lot af praise."

- Signe, COPI

Art that belongs there

CORI sits right by the beach in Hornbæk, surrounded by dunes, wind, water and that particular kind of Danish coastal light. The ambition for the hotel was to create something luxurious without feeling overly polished - a place that feels considered, relaxed and very much connected to where it is. The art needed to do the same.
Rather than sourcing mass-produced pieces to match the interiors, CORI wanted to work with independent artists and create original works specifically for the hotel. Pieces made by actual hands, with their own character, imperfections and stories.
Together with CORI, we carefully sourced six independent artists from the Cay community, looking not only at individual artworks but at how each artist's expression could become part of the hotel as a whole.

From reality to moodboard and back to reality

CORI Hotel is located on the dunes of Hornbæk. Sand. Weathered wood. Deep greens. Earthy browns. Soft neutrals. Sea and wind. Organic and real.
From there, we developed a curated art direction based on CORI's interiors, colour palette and environment, while leaving enough room for each artist to do what they do best. The goal wasn't to make six artists create the same thing. Quite the opposite. It was to find six distinct creative expressions that somehow felt like they had always belonged together.

Then our artists got to work.

Over the summer, they produced more than 173 original pieces, handmade specifically for CORI. Ceramics, sculptural works in wood and paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolour - different materials, techniques and hands, and a lot of coordination with us.
Colours were adjusted. Formats were developed for specific rooms and walls. Pieces were created in series, while keeping the small variations that make handmade work handmade. 

 “It’s so much fun to be part of such an inspiring network. Without Cay, my art would probably never have ended up in the places it has!” 

- Olivia / Atelier Reldén, Creator

Then came the small matter of getting it all to Denmark

Of course, our artists were the heart of the operation. However, like any body of function, we needed a lot of coordination (and spirit!). The Cay-team may be small, but damn solution-oriented and very optimistic. We managed all the coordination, logistics, and delivery, behind getting 300+ individual art pieces from multiple artists, safely packed, collected, transported and delivered to CORI in Hornbæk, Denmark.
There were spreadsheets. Many spreadsheets. But eventually, boxes became rooms, artworks found their walls, and something that had existed for months as measurements, moodboards, sketches and studio photos became part of a real hotel.

Why original art matters in a hotel

A beautiful hotel can have beautiful furniture, beautiful lighting and beautiful materials. But the details that stay with you are often the ones that feel a little harder to place. For CORI, working with independent artists wasn't something added at the end to fill empty walls. It became part of creating the atmosphere of the hotel itself.
And for us, that's what made the project particularly special. 173+ original artworks. More than 300 pieces coordinated and delivered. Six independent artists. One hotel sharing our view on art and artists. What started as a relatively small art order became the largest project Cay Collective has taken on to date – and a pretty good example of what can happen when artists are invited into a project early enough to actually become part of it.

Have a space that could use something less ordinary?

Hotels, restaurants, offices, retail spaces - or somewhere we haven't thought of yet. Cay Collective connects companies with independent artists to create and curate original art, objects and custom pieces made for the spaces they will actually live in.
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“We’re so happy with the collaboration, it’s honestly been such a great experience! And the artworks are just beautiful.”

- Signe, COPI

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Created for CORI Hornbæk Hotel

This artwork was created exclusively for CORI Hornbæk Hotel as part of a curated collaboration with Cay Collective. Developed in close dialogue with the hotel, the piece has been tailored to complement CORI's architecture, interior palette, and the calm atmosphere of the surrounding coastline.

Every artwork in the collection is handmade by an independent artist, making each piece an original created specifically for this collaboration.