The New Medici

There is a world of difference between the work you do for a corporation and the work you do when you are working for an individual. There is a relationship between you - a partnership which is not transactional which is more based on instinct, intuition, taste. We’re not saying we’re like quite like Michelangelo but it’s the same sort of relationship he would have had with the medici - they had a vision and they employed his skills to make it fly. This relationship with visionary patrons is a very special relationship and allows us to create extraordinary, original and beautiful luxury experiences.

We have been lucky enough to partner with a range of clients who come to us with different starting points from a dream to a product to a unique place that they want to share with the world. Bee Emmott, through ArtFarm, has been that client more than once. At The Fife Arms in Braemar, at The Audley in Mayfair, at Mount St. Restaurant in London, she and Hauser & Wirth founders Ivan and Manuela Wirth have built a version of hospitality that owes more to the idea of the patron than the operator. We have been lucky enough to work together to establish what that looks like in practice. What follows is a conversation about what patronage looks like today, how we keep the craft alive and the responsibility of the new Medici of the 21st century.

Tess: We’ve been discussing this for a while, this whole idea of the new Medici, so let’s start with definitions; what does patronage mean to you today?

Bee:The whole Medici, it's not just about a wealthy family and one artist. There is such a role in making a judgment about what skill you think is important to champion, to enable the site to prosper and be sustainable in the future. So in 50, 60, 100, 200 years' time, it still exists. That's the responsibility you have. To say: I'm making a judgment call that this is important, for whatever reason, and I'm going to create the conditions where that can be done. Where we won't rush the maker, we won't prescribe any particular constraints, but we will enable you and empower you to do what you can do.

Tess: One thing that comes to mind for me is our project, The Fife Arms, can you share more on how it began?

Bee: Ivan and Manuella Wirth fell in love with a Victorian coaching inn in the middle of Braemar. They went in, had a cup of coffee, and thought this an incredible location, incredible building in the most fantastic landscape, and a real opportunity to reinvigorate it and give it back to the village and the local community. That took about five years. And each time we've grown the business, it's been very much led by a place we've fallen in love with, or that has a personal connection to them.

Tess: And then the work of actually knowing the place begins. Which is the part most people underestimate.

Bee: It was a real labour of love to deep-dive into what that place, what that location had to offer. Whether that's the craftspeople who have lived and worked there, whether it's the landscape that has material to offer, whether it's the history of the building. You can't come in as Swiss art gallerists and say, "We know Braemar." You absolutely have to work with the people who do. It's only through that incredibly deep, forensic research that we rely on partners, whether it's Here, or Jinny (Blom), or whoever it is, to really work with us to get under the skin of what that place is about, that you discover all these incredible stories.

Bee: You've got Francis Farquharson, who was the editor of Harper's Bazaar, who's married to the laird, who was really good friends with Schiaparelli. We have Elsa's, the bar named after Schiaparelli. You've got all these stories that you think, "What? The editor of Harper's Bazaar was married to the laird? Why would they be in Braemar?" There's a glamour to that, and there's a kind of intrigue, because you think, "But what's so special about this random place in the middle of nowhere?" And then you start exploring things like tartan and tweed, and how, because of people like Francis Farquharson and Schiaparelli, there's this incredibly rich fashion life cycle of The Fife. Something we would have never known when we started.

Tess: And that texture is what then attracts the next generation of makers. The Kuitca mural, for one.

Bee: He came from Argentina to spend six weeks in Scotland. You have the River Clunie running past the dining room, and he's renowned for listening to classical music when he works. He was obviously also listening to the rhythm of the Clunie. You don't have to know any of this, you don't need a sophisticated art education, but there's a sense of it fitting. You couldn't have that in London. You couldn't have that in America. You could only have it in that particular location, next to that river, with that Argentinean artist having that experience. Every single moment of that mural is down to a human being's judgment about what he felt he needed to do.

Tess: And it scales all the way down to the objects. The egg scissors have become almost mythical.

Bee: The most stolen element of The Fife Arms. Hundred-pound scissors that chop the top of your very local egg. All those tiny little touchpoints are telling you the story as you go. Without you even knowing, you're engaged in it. And it's not didactic. It's not trying to explain the world to you. I'm not explaining a hotel, you're here to enjoy yourself. If you want to know more, talk to us. But just be excited by the eccentricity. Those things should be a spark of curiosity. A reason to ask why.

Tess: In twenty, fifty years' time, what do you think will still be there?

Bee: The investment in all of what we've talked about. The craft, the details, the tradition. Really doing it the difficult, the hard way, which is slower, there's risk, it's painful, it's frustrating, there's all the imperfections and mistakes that will be made along the way. It informs how the press talk about us. It informs how guests talk about us. It encourages loyalty, because people trust it. The authenticity and the integrity behind it all creates that loyalty. And from a business standpoint, we don't have to redo, settle the next trend, or satisfy the next latest cool thing that hotels are doing, because that's just not what we do. The Fife will always be Scottish Victoriana, maximalist - just like Marmite - you'll love it or hate it, but it is what it is, and it's not trying to be everything to all people. It's a living, breathing ecosystem. Never static. Jinny Blom's garden at The Fife has more coming, it was amazing from the beginning, but it grows richer as the different stories build.

Tess: We have a line on this at Here: you only get to keep what you decide to hold on to. Does that resonate?

Bee: Completely. And ultimately that's about an individual. An individual making a judgment about what's worth preserving, what conditions to create, what skills to sustain. That's what patronage means now. Not collecting. Creating the conditions.

The New Medici give us hope that a personal vision of the world can be as much about enriching the world as well as getting richer - about creating beauty, not just going to space.