Abstract

This study employs an ethnographic perspective and qualitative approaches to explore how the arts have been used to facilitate discussions in a hospitality environment among various participants, including visitors, tourists, researchers, and academics. The study aims to examine hospitality within the arts and how it facilitates discussions among writers, artists, and scholars. Drawing from literature and the visual arts, this research explores three case studies. The first focuses on the story of Burma-Shave (1927–1963), a pop-culture brand that became an icon in America during the Great Depression. The second case study focuses on Jewish humor and its critics, and how it prompted audiences to recognize truth and contemplate human duties. The third case study reveals complementary persuasive arguments, with the visual arts employed to explore Luther as a humanist activist in Germany from 1500, and the expansion of Lutheran viewpoints globally with complementary perspectives. In the context of the arts of hospitality, the question arises: How do the arts of hospitality create powerful tools for fostering social and cultural development?