What happens when the art of hospitality meets the art of storytelling?
That question is at the heart of the newest episode of ArtScene | the Podcast, where Chestertown artist Michael Bell sits down with Hilari and Dave Rinehart, owners of Brampton 1860, to talk about hospitality, entrepreneurship, memory—and a new partnership bringing three private creative experiences to Bell’s Cannon Street Art Studio.
The collaboration grew from a shared idea: people are often looking for more than another place to go. They are looking for somewhere that lets them slow down, reconnect and experience something they will remember.
Brampton 1860 offers that kind of escape on its 35-acre historic estate just outside Chestertown. Bell saw an immediate parallel with his new art studio, tucked away just behind Yarrow & Wren in the yellow house at 312 Cannon Street, which he describes as having a hidden, almost speakeasy-like quality.
“I think we could see that you were offering something different for folks to try to do, to think differently,” Hilari shares during the conversation.
Dave agrees, noting that Brampton encourages guests to venture into Chestertown and experience what the town has to offer.
“It’s an opportunity to do something maybe they’ve never done,” he says of Bell’s studio experiences.
The partnership will offer Brampton guests three artist-led experiences:
Love Letters is designed for couples and uses writing, visual journaling and shared artmaking to explore memory, connection and rediscovery.
“It’s really about seeing with new eyes,” Bell says in the episode. “Seeing the other person again.”
And Bell does more than describe the experience during the podcast.
Without warning them in advance, he invited Hilari and Dave to try the opening moments of his Love Letters package for themselves. Each received a different sealed prompt and wrote privately, unaware of what the other had been asked.
What happened next surprised them both.
Despite receiving completely different questions, Hilari and Dave independently returned to the same early chapter of their relationship—the period surrounding their first encounters at a gym and the moment their connection began to shift into something more.
When Bell asked them to circle the words in their writing that seemed to “glow brighter,” their separate memories began revealing a shared story.
“You really could have gone in any direction with that,” Bell says. “And yet you both wrote about the same moment without knowing.”
For Bell, that spontaneous exchange captures exactly what Love Letters is intended to do: create enough space for two people to remember, talk, create something meaningful together—and perhaps see one another a little differently.
Drawing the Line turns the focus inward. For individuals, couples or groups, participants use personal objects, writing, memory and mixed media to explore identity and place as the “invisible lines” connecting the chapters of their lives.
Saints & Sinners is designed for small groups of four to eight and takes a more playful direction, combining abstract collaborative artmaking, blindfolds, music, movement and sensory prompts inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins.
Bell says the experiences are intentionally different from art classes or paint-and-sip events.
“It’s not really one size fits all,” he says. “It’s more one size fits one. It’s personalized.”
For Hilari Rinehart, that uniqueness is what made the partnership appealing.
“Can you do something like this elsewhere?” she asks in the podcast. “I don’t think so.”
The conversation also explores the history of Brampton, the emotional stories of guests who have returned to the property over the years, Chestertown’s distinctive sense of place—and what people ultimately carry with them after an experience is over: how it made them feel.
That shared philosophy connects the inn and studio in a natural way. Brampton gives guests permission to step away from everyday life; Bell’s studio invites them to step a little more deeply into their own stories.
Bell closes the episode with a thought that captures the spirit of the partnership:
“Maybe your next masterpiece might not hang on a wall. It might be a conversation.”
The Love Letters, Drawing the Line, and Saints & Sinners experiences will be available through Brampton 1860’s Specials & Packages offerings at bramptoninn.com under Specials & Packages and through Michael Bell’s Cannon Street Art Studio at MBELLART.com.
Watch a 60-second preview of the episode:
https://youtu.be/KTTbAJnkTew
The newest episode of ArtScene | the Podcast is available September 1 on Spotify or at anchor.fm/artscene.
