MONA drops HoMo in favour of Motown
Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) founder David Walsh is not shy of causing controversy, but has stepped away from calling his planned new hotel HoMo in favour of Motown as the previous moniker had "offended a few people".
"Originally it was going to be HoMo (Hotel MONA); after consultation with the MONA staff force, and with the community beyond, we decided to ditch it," Walsh said in a statement.
"It turned out that I didn't really have the right to call something HoMo when I'm not gay, and it offended a few people because I guess I was being culturally insensitive.
"The people that didn't like it, really didn't like it, and that matters to me."
He said the HoMo name was meant to be "celebratory".
"We hoped the name would keep the homophobes at bay … [but] it was decided that it wasn't [our] joke to make."
The $400 million luxury hotel will have 172 rooms and will include a theatre, spa centre, outdoor concert stage as well as conference and auditorium facilities.
The development application has been officially submitted to Glenorchy Council with a tentative opening slated for 2024.
13th December 2018
