144-690: The Art Institute of Chicago , founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago 's Grant Park . Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat 's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte , Pablo Picasso 's The Old Guitarist , Edward Hopper 's Nighthawks , and Grant Wood 's American Gothic . Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art
288-470: A sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of the grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of
432-640: A 1:12 scale showcasing American, European, and Asian architectural and furniture styles from the Middle Ages to the 1930s (when the rooms were constructed). Both the paperweights and the Thorne Rooms are located on the ground floor of the museum. The museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, widely regarded as one of the finest collections outside of France. Highlights include more than 30 paintings by Claude Monet , including six of his Haystacks and
576-537: A bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein the Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after
720-652: A cafe. In addition, the Nichols Bridgeway connects a sculpture garden on the roof of the new wing with the adjacent Millennium Park to the north and a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. In 2009, the Modern Wing won at the Chicago Innovation Awards. Other notable works are in the collection but the following examples are ones in the public domain and for which pictures are available. In 2018, as it redesigned its website,
864-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include
1008-470: A contest at the Art Institute in 1930, and although not a favorite of some, it won a medal and was acquired by the museum. The Art Institute's ancient collection spans nearly 4,000 years of art and history, showcasing Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewelry, glass, and bronze and a robust and well-maintained collection of ancient coins. There are around 5,000 works in
1152-463: A director of many prominent Chicago organizations, including the University of Chicago , and would transform the Art Institute into a world-class museum during his presidency, which he held until his death in 1924. Also in 1882, the organization purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $ 45,000. The existing commercial building on that property was used for
1296-513: A longtime supporter. In 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago sold 11 works at auction, including paintings by Claude Monet , Pablo Picasso , Amedeo Modigliani , Maurice Utrillo and Edgar Degas , to raise the $ 12 million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, Golden Bird , by Constantin Brâncuși . At the time, the sculpture was owned by the Arts Club of Chicago , which was selling it to buy
1440-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with
1584-424: A major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. As "one of the most respected museum leaders in the country", as described by The New York Times , Wood created major exhibitions of works by Paul Gauguin , Claude Monet , and Vincent van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004. The institute began construction of "The Modern Wing", an addition situated on
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#17327756619511728-595: A musical and was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off , Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884 , is prominently displayed. Additionally, Henri Matisse 's Bathers by a River , is an important example of his work. Highlights of non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include Vincent van Gogh 's Bedroom in Arles and Self-portrait , 1887. In
1872-455: A new gallery for its other works. In 2005, the museum sold two paintings by Marc Chagall and Auguste Renoir at Sotheby's . In 2011, it auctioned two Picassos ( Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine (1901) and Verre et pipe (1919)), Henri Matisse 's Femme au fauteuil (1919), and Georges Braque 's Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) (1938) at Christie's in London. In 2002,
2016-560: A number of Water Lilies . Also in the collection are important works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir such as Two Sisters (On the Terrace) , and Gustave Caillebotte 's Paris Street; Rainy Day . Post-Impressionist works include Paul Cézanne 's The Basket of Apples , and Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair. At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight. The pointillist masterpiece, which also inspired
2160-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in
2304-430: A pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage, including a coastal gun of 42 cm in bore (16.54 inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 long tons (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: "It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of brown powder ,
2448-705: A replica of the Gokstad ship . It was built in Norway and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean by 12 men, led by Captain Magnus Andersen. In 1919, this ship was moved to Lincoln Park . It was relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois , where it awaits renovation. Thirty-four U.S. states also had their own pavilions. The work of noted feminist author Kate McPhelim Cleary was featured during
2592-744: A rock quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts , so that the Bunker Hill Monument could be erected in Boston. The frog switch is now on public view in East Milton Square, Massachusetts , on the original right-of-way of the Granite Railway. Transportation by rail was the major mode of transportation. A 26-track train station was built at the southwest corner of the fair. While trains from around the country would unload there, there
2736-520: A stylized recreation of an American Indian cliff dwelling with pottery, weapons, and other relics on display. There was also an Eskimo display. There were also birch bark wigwams of the Penobscot tribe. Nearby was a working model Indian school, organized by the Office of Indian Affairs, that housed delegations of Native American students and their teachers from schools around the country for weeks at
2880-628: A successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements. The location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107. The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park and an area around it as
3024-493: A time. The John Bull locomotive was displayed. It was only 62 years old, having been built in 1831. It was the first locomotive acquisition by the Smithsonian Institution . The locomotive ran under its own power from Washington, DC , to Chicago to participate, and returned to Washington under its own power again when the exposition closed. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in
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#17327756619513168-609: A very popular exhibit. Eadweard Muybridge gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall, built specially for that purpose on Midway Plaisance. He used his zoopraxiscope to show his moving pictures to a paying public. The hall was the first commercial movie theater. The "Street in Cairo" included the popular dancer known as Little Egypt . She introduced America to
3312-586: A way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines. The first American attempt at a world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress
3456-529: Is also open to the general public. The Friends of the Libraries, a support group for the Libraries, offers events and special tours for its members. On May 16, 2009, the Art Institute opened the Modern Wing, the largest expansion in the museum's history. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m) addition, designed by Renzo Piano , makes the Art Institute the second-largest museum in the US. The architect of record in
3600-520: Is associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , a leading art school, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States. In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as
3744-422: Is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research. As a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and Ryerson and Burnham Libraries , one of the nation's largest art history and architecture libraries. The museum's building
3888-557: Is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in the Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after
4032-507: Is intended to increase space for 19th century, modern, and contemporary art. The design and placement of the new gallery or gallery building are yet to be decided. Located on the ground floor of the museum is the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries . The Libraries' collections cover all periods of art, but is most known for its extensive collection of 18th to 20th century architecture. It serves the museum staff, college and university students, and
4176-459: Is perhaps Hopper's most famous painting, and one of the most recognizable images in American art . Also well known, American Gothic has been in the museum's collection since 1930 and was only loaned outside of North America for the first time in 2016. Wood's painting depicts what has been called "the most famous couple in the world", a dour, rural-American, father and daughter. It was entered into
4320-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden
4464-628: Is set in Chicago. During it, the characters are shown viewing A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte . Hughes had first visited the institute as a "refuge" while in high school. Hughes' commentary on the sequence was used as a reference point by journalist Hadley Freeman in a discussion of the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2011. The paintings used in the 1970 Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece are works held in
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4608-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of
4752-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi
4896-774: The Niña (real name Santa Clara ), the Pinta , and the Santa María . These were intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. The ships were constructed in Spain and then sailed to America for the exposition. The celebration of Columbus was an intergovernmental project, coordinated by American special envoy William Eleroy Curtis , the Queen Regent of Spain , and Pope Leo XIII . The ships were
5040-768: The Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it
5184-528: The Baháʼí Faith in North America; it was not taken seriously by European scholars until the 1960s. Along the banks of the lake, patrons on the way to the casino were taken on a moving walkway designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee , the first of its kind open to the public, called The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk , it allowed people to walk along or ride in seats. Horticultural exhibits at
5328-455: The COVID-19 pandemic). It was ranked tenth among the most-visited museums in the United States , and was the sixth most-visited U.S. art museum. As of 2011, the Art Institute continues to rebuild its $ 783 million endowment since the recession . In June 2008, its endowment was $ 827 million. As of 2012, the museum is rated A1 by Moody's , its fifth-highest grade, in part reflecting
5472-771: The Chicago World's Fair , was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus 's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park , was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City , Washington, D.C. , and St. Louis . The exposition
5616-649: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753, the British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of
5760-772: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose
5904-645: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: World%27s Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition , also known as
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6048-551: The Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of the social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and
6192-618: The Manhattan District Attorney 's Office moved to seize Egon Schiele paintings from several museums on the grounds that they had been looted by the Nazis from Fritz Grünbaum , who was killed in the Holocaust . The paintings included, Russian War Prisoner, a watercolor in the Art Institute. The Art Institute continues to hold the work, as it is contesting the seizure in court. According to its investigation, it acquired
6336-548: The Metra Electric and South Shore lines operate below. The lower level of gallery space was formerly the windowless Gunsaulus hall, but is now home to the Alsdorf Galleries showcasing Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art. During renovation, windows facing north toward Millennium Park were added. The gallery space was designed by Renzo Piano in conjunction with his design of the Modern Wing and features
6480-540: The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery" is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to
6624-624: The Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when the recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public
6768-591: The Royal Academy , with Academicians and Associate Academicians. The academy's charter was granted in March 1867. Classes started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $ 10 per month. The academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870. When the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871,
6912-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are
7056-457: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition , as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the close of the fair. The Art Institute's entrance on Michigan Avenue is guarded by two bronze lion statues created by Edward Kemeys . The lions were unveiled on May 10, 1894, each weighing more than two tons. The sculptor gave them unofficial names:
7200-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is
7344-414: The Art Institute of Chicago filed suit alleging fraud by a small Dallas firm called Integral Investment Management, along with related parties. The museum, which put $ 43 million of its endowment into funds run by the defendants, claimed that it faced losses of up to 90% on the investments after they soured. In 2010, the year after the opening of its massive Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago sued
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#17327756619517488-586: The Art Institute released images of 52,438 of its public domain works, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence. During 2009, attendance was around 2 million—up 33 percent from 2008—in addition to a total of approximately 100,000 museum memberships. Despite a 25 percent boost in museum admission fees, the Modern Wing was a major catalyst for a rise in visitor traffic. In 2022, the museum welcomed 1.04 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from 2021, but still well below 2018 attendance (before
7632-472: The Art Institute the world's best museum. The museum received perhaps the largest gift of art in its history in 2015. Collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson donated a "collection [that] is among the world's greatest groups of postwar Pop art ever assembled". The donation includes works by Andy Warhol , Jasper Johns , Cy Twombly , Jeff Koons , Charles Ray , Richard Prince , Cindy Sherman , Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter . The museum agreed to keep
7776-656: The Art Institute's collection. Art museums An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art , usually from the museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to
7920-607: The Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect Henry Ives Cobb designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, Francis Davis Millet , directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the " American Renaissance ", and it showcased
8064-703: The City of Chicago for this building was Interactive Design. The Modern Wing is home to the museum's collection of early 20th-century European art, including Pablo Picasso 's The Old Guitarist , Henri Matisse 's Bathers by a River , and René Magritte 's Time Transfixed . The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection of Surrealist art includes the largest public display of Joseph Cornell 's works (37 boxes and collages). The Wing also houses contemporary art from after 1960; new photography, video media, architecture and design galleries including original renderings by Frank Lloyd Wright , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Bruce Goff ; temporary exhibition space; shops and classrooms; and
8208-440: The Horticultural Hall included cacti and orchids as well as other plants in a greenhouse . Most of the buildings of the fair were designed in the neoclassical architecture style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City . Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called staff , which was painted white, giving the buildings their "gleam". Architecture critics derided
8352-419: The Louisiana Pavilion were each given a seedling of a cypress tree. This resulted in the spread of cypress trees to areas where they were not native. Cypress trees from those seedlings can be found in many areas of West Virginia, where they flourish in the climate. The Illinois was a detailed, full-scale mockup of an Indiana -class battleship , constructed as a naval exhibit. The German firm Krupp had
8496-433: The Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in
8640-458: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to
8784-424: The US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps the largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term,
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#17327756619518928-523: The United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab, Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn , and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson , among many others. The fair was planned in the early 1890s during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition , had been successful in Europe as
9072-436: The World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery." Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India. The exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by
9216-426: The World's Religions , which ran from September 11 to September 27, marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions from around the world. According to Eric J. Sharpe , Tomoko Masuzawa , and others, the event was considered radical at the time, since it allowed non-Christian faiths to speak on their own behalf. For example, it is recognized as the first public mention of
9360-411: The academy was thrown into debt. Attempts to continue despite the loss by using rented facilities failed. By 1878, the academy was $ 10,000 in debt. Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before some finally abandoned it in 1879 to found a new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts . When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year,
9504-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since
9648-402: The art of the Byzantine Empire to contemporary American art. It is principally known for one of the United States' finest collection of paintings produced in Western culture. The Art Institute's African Art and Indian Art of the Americas collections are on display across two galleries in the south end of the Michigan Avenue building. The African collection includes more than 400 works that span
9792-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by
9936-494: The ashes of the Great Chicago Fire , which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $ 1.5 million (equivalent to $ 50.9 million in 2023). Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag . Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around
10080-433: The best-known works in the American canon, including Edward Hopper 's Nighthawks , Grant Wood 's American Gothic , and Mary Cassatt 's The Child's Bath . The collection ranges from colonial silver to modern and contemporary paintings. The museum purchased Nighthawks in 1942 for $ 3,000; its acquisition "launched" the painting into "immense popular recognition". Considered an "icon of American culture", Nighthawks
10224-460: The blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic." The Chair of the Institute's Board of Trustees, Robert M. Levy, responded in a Tribune op-ed supporting the change, and described the Tribune 's editorial as having "numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterizations", noted that
10368-551: The board) the Logan Medal of the Arts , an award which became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the U.S. Between 1959 and 1970, the institute was a key site in the battle to gain art and documentary photography a place in galleries, under curator Hugh Edwards and his assistants. As director of the museum starting in the early 1980s, James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw
10512-614: The building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were met by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the institute moved into the new building. For the opening reception on December 8, 1893, Theodore Thomas and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed. From the early 1900s to the 1960s the school offered with the Logan Family (members of
10656-413: The burgeoning neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles. The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing. Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service. Jackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon
10800-463: The city where there was "not a house to buy and not a rock to blast" and that it would be located so that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of "vital interest" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of
10944-555: The collection, offering a comprehensive survey of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, beginning with the third millennium B.C. and extending to the Byzantine Empire . The collection also holds the mummy and mummy case of Paankhenamun. The Department of Architecture and Design holds more than 140,000 works, from models to drawings from the 1870s to the present day. The collection covers landscape architecture , structural engineering , and industrial design , including
11088-403: The continent, highlighting ceramics, garments, masks, and jewelry. The Amerindian collection includes Native North American art and Mesoamerican and Andean works. From pottery to textiles, the collection brings together a wide array of objects that seek to illustrate the thematic and aesthetic focuses of art spanning the Americas. The Art Institute's American Art collection contains some of
11232-493: The court filing provided detailed evidence that provenance documents provided by the Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld contained forged signatures or were altered long after he came into possession of the paintings and sold them to other art dealers in the mid-1950s. Court hearings on the matter are expected in 2024. Director John Hughes included a sequence in the Art Institute in his 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off , which
11376-730: The display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and
11520-695: The display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently, a series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials
11664-465: The docent program had already been largely on pause for the past 15 months due to the COVID pandemic , and argued that the decision was not about anyone's identity, it was in keeping with changing modern museum practices around the world. Following a volunteerism surge in the late 1940s, the program had been created in 1961 to revitalize and expand "programming for children." Among other matters, since 2014
11808-497: The donated work on display for at least 50 years. In June 2018, the museum received a $ 50 million donation, the largest single announced unrestricted monetary donation in its history. A $ 75 million donation in 2024 is to go toward a new gallery. The collection of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments, ranging from early Japanese prints to
11952-532: The end of the frontier which Buffalo Bill represented. The electrotachyscope of Ottomar Anschütz was demonstrated, which used a Geissler tube to project the illusion of moving images . Louis Comfort Tiffany made his reputation with a stunning chapel designed and built for the Exposition. After the Exposition the Tiffany Chapel was sold several times, even going back to Tiffany's estate. It
12096-493: The endowment. Around $ 370 million were raised primarily from private patrons in Chicago. In 2011, the Art Institute received a $ 10 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation to renovate and expand galleries devoted to Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and to support acquisitions and special exhibitions of that art. In 2016 the Art Institute received a $ 35 million gift from Dorothy Braude Edinburg,
12240-485: The engineering firm Ove Arup for $ 10 million over what it said were flaws in the concrete floors and air-circulation systems. The suit was settled out of court . In 2021, the Art Institute ended its unpaid volunteer docents program to move to a paid model. The Chicago Tribune editorial page criticized the Institute's letter announcing the change and the move to a new model, arguing that "[o]nce you cut through
12384-704: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of
12528-438: The exposition. The exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km ), featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons , and people and cultures from 46 countries. More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs , and it became a symbol of emerging American exceptionalism , much in
12672-568: The fair site being referred to as the "White City". The Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian . The Midway was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition , which included ethnological "villages". Civil rights leaders protested
12816-411: The fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate neoclassical style and painted white, resulting in
12960-479: The fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead whitewash that could be applied using compressed air spray painting to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting. Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store , who had been using this method to apply whitewash to
13104-464: The fair, several products that are well-known today were introduced. These products included Juicy Fruit gum, Cream of Wheat , Cracker Jacks , Shredded Wheat cereal, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, among many others. There was an Anthropology Building at the World's Fair. Nearby, "The Cliff Dwellers" featured a rock and timber structure that was painted to recreate Battle Rock Mountain in Colorado,
13248-491: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than
13392-424: The general public, they were often made available for viewing for a section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from
13536-465: The help of Chicago Art Institute instructor Lorado Taft to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as "the White Rabbits " to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment "Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work." The words "Thine alabaster cities gleam" from the song " America
13680-407: The history of the artform from its inception in 1839 to the present. The print and drawings collection began with a donation by Elizabeth S. Stickney of 460 works in 1887, and was organized into its own department of the museum in 1911. Their holdings have subsequently grown to 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, ranging from 15th-century works to contemporary. The collection contains a strong group of
13824-707: The late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate, the idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in
13968-624: The mid-1930s, the Art Institute received a gift of over one hundred works of art from Annie Swan Coburn ("Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection"). The "Coburn Renoirs" became the core of the Art Institute's Impressionist painting collection. The collection also includes the Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms, and Armor holdings, including the George F. Harding Collection of arms and armor, and three centuries of Old Masters works. The museum's collection of modern and contemporary art
14112-572: The monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to the public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
14256-523: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include
14400-484: The museum is marked by the stone arch entrance to the old Chicago Stock Exchange . Designed by Louis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was demolished in 1972, but salvaged portions of the original trading room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed. The Art Institute building has the unusual property of straddling open-air railroad tracks. Two stories of gallery space connect the east and west buildings while
14544-435: The museum's pension and retirement liabilities; Standard & Poor's rates the museum A+, fifth-best. In October 2012, the Art Institute sold about $ 100 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds partly to shore-up unfunded pension obligations. The $ 294 million extension in 2009 was the culmination of a $ 385 million fundraising campaign—roughly $ 300 million for design and construction and $ 85 million for
14688-467: The new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction. In 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current Art Institute of Chicago and elected as its first president the banker and philanthropist Charles L. Hutchinson , who "is arguably the single most important individual to have shaped the direction and fortunes of the Art Institute of Chicago". Hutchinson was
14832-548: The opening of the Nebraska Day ceremonies at the fair, which included a reading of her poem "Nebraska". Among the state buildings present at the fair were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas; each was meant to be architecturally representative of the corresponding states. Four United States territories also had pavilions located in one building: Arizona , New Mexico , Oklahoma , and Utah . Visitors to
14976-420: The organization's headquarters, and a new addition was constructed behind it to provide gallery space and to house the school's facilities. By January 1885 the trustees recognized the need to provide additional space for the organization's growing collection, and to this end purchased the vacant lot directly south on Michigan Avenue. The commercial building was demolished, and the noted architect John Wellborn Root
15120-654: The paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of the 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by
15264-521: The present. From English needlework to Japanese garments to American quilts, the collection presents a diverse group of objects, including contemporary works and fiber art . The current building complex at 111 South Michigan Avenue is the third address for the Art Institute. Situated in Grant Park , it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston to host national and international meetings held in conjunction with
15408-517: The program had been trying to attract a more diverse socioeconomic perspective set of art-tour guides, given the unpaid time commitment needed. In 1996, heirs to Jewish art collectors Louise and Friedrich Gutmann , who died in Nazi concentration camps, sued museum trustee Daniel Searle for the return of the Edgar Degas painting, Landscape with Smokestacks . After years of litigation a settlement
15552-526: The quiet and meditative way in which Japanese screens are traditionally viewed. The Art Institute's collection of European decorative arts includes some 25,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, enamel, and ivory from 1100 AD to the present day. The department contains the 1,544 objects in the Arthur Rubloff Paperweight Collection and the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms –a collection of miniaturized interiors of
15696-470: The refusal to include an African American exhibit. Frederick Douglass , Ida B. Wells , Irvine Garland Penn , and Ferdinand Lee Barnet co-authored a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, "when it is asked why we are excluded from
15840-543: The same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom. Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair served to show the world that Chicago had risen from
15984-460: The same window screening used there to protect the art from direct sunlight. The upper level formerly held the modern European galleries, but was renovated in 2008 and now features the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries. In September 2024, the museum announced a gift of $ 75 million for a new gallery building or wing named for benefactors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The gallery
16128-457: The sculptor Edmonia Lewis , a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver , and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard . Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as Nancy Green 's portrayal of the character Aunt Jemima for the R. T. Davis Milling Company. The fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which
16272-514: The second floor, contains works by Andy Warhol , Cindy Sherman , Cy Twombly , Jackson Pollock , Jasper Johns , and other significant modern and contemporary artists. The Art Institute did not officially establish a photography collection until 1949, when Georgia O'Keeffe donated a significant portion of the Alfred Stieglitz collection to the museum. Since then, the museum's collection has grown to approximately 20,000 works spanning
16416-516: The south lion is "stands in an attitude of defiance", and the north lion is "on the prowl". When a Chicago sports team plays in the championships of their respective league (i.e. the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Finals, not the entire playoffs), the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. Evergreen wreaths are placed around their necks during the Christmas season. The east entrance of
16560-679: The southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe in the early 21st century. The project, designed by Pritzker Prize –winning architect Renzo Piano , was completed and officially opened to the public on May 16, 2009. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m) building addition made the Art Institute the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum's world-renowned collections of 20th and 21st century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. In its inaugural survey in 2014, travel review website and forum, Tripadvisor , reviewed millions of travelers' surveys and named
16704-502: The structures as "decorated sheds.” The buildings were clad in white stucco , which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night. In 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed Francis Davis Millet to replace
16848-410: The subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings. Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s. Many of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought
16992-400: The suggestive version of the belly dance known as the " hootchy-kootchy ," to a tune said to have been improvised by Sol Bloom (and now more commonly associated with snake charmers) which he had composed when his dancers had no music to dance to. Bloom did not copyright the song, putting it immediately in the public domain . Also included was the first moving walkway or travelator, which
17136-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged
17280-519: The watercolor drawing in 1966 from an American art dealer through a proper provenance from Grünbaum's legal heir, and it also argues that the claim is time-barred because Grünbaum's heirs were aware. In February 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney filed a motion accusing the Art Institute of "blatantly ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been looted". According to The New York Times ,
17424-411: The works of Albrecht Dürer , Rembrandt van Rijn , Francisco Goya , and James McNeill Whistler . Because works on paper are sensitive to light and degrade quickly, the works are on display infrequently in order to keep them in good condition for as long as possible. The Department of Textiles has more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample swatches in total, covering an array of cultures from 300 BC to
17568-487: The works of Frank Lloyd Wright , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , and Le Corbusier . The Art Institute's Asian collection spans nearly 5,000 years, including significant works and objects from China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East. There are 35,000 objects in the collection, showcasing bronzes, ceramics, jades, textiles, screens, woodcuts, and sculptures. One gallery in particular attempts to mimic
17712-594: The world when it ran under its own power again. A Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the 2-4-2 type was known as the Columbia . An original frog switch and portion of the superstructure of the famous 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts could be viewed. This was the first commercial railroad in the United States to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. The railway brought granite stones from
17856-830: Was 264 feet (80 m) high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 40 people. The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of rueda de Chicago ("Chicago wheel") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the Ferris wheel . One attendee, George C. Tilyou , later credited the sights he saw on the Chicago midway for inspiring him to create America's first major amusement park, Steeplechase Park in Coney Island , New York. The fair included life-size reproductions of Christopher Columbus' three ships,
18000-703: Was Chicago banker Lyman Gage , who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer. Chicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were "abundant supplies of good air and pure water", "ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around
18144-626: Was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of
18288-599: Was a local train to shuttle tourists from the Chicago Grand Central Station to the fair. The newly built Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad also served passengers from Congress Terminal to the fairgrounds at Jackson Park . The line exists today as part of the CTA Green Line . Forty-six countries had pavilions at the exposition. Norway participated by sending the Viking ,
18432-498: Was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture , the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root , Daniel Burnham , Frederick Law Olmsted , and Charles B. Atwood . It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It
18576-402: Was called on to decide the location. New York financiers J. P. Morgan , Cornelius Vanderbilt , and William Waldorf Astor , among others, pledged $ 15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes , Marshall Field , Philip Armour , Gustavus Swift , and Cyrus McCormick, Jr. , offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress
18720-409: Was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles." Nicknamed "The Thunderer", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion John Schofield declared Krupps' guns "the greatest peacemakers in the world". This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I Dicke Berta howitzers. The 1893 Parliament of
18864-494: Was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it. The exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km ) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park , and Woodlawn . Charles H. Wacker was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and
19008-561: Was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original " Monsters of the Midway ." The exposition is mentioned in the university's alma mater : "The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die." The World's Columbian Exposition
19152-489: Was concluded which involved the acquisition of the painting by the Art Institute. A collection of approximately 500 objects from Nepal , India and elsewhere in Asia that was donated to the Art Institute by trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 1989 was later found to contain several objects that were looted; nine objects have been returned by the museum to Nepal over the years, while some additional items are still being contested. In 2023,
19296-455: Was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and, due to the growth of the collection, several additions have occurred since. The Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano , is the most recent expansion, and when it opened in 2009 it increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet. This made it the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Art Institute
19440-486: Was designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee . It had two different divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino. Although denied a spot at the fair, Buffalo Bill Cody decided to come to Chicago anyway, setting up his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show just outside the edge of the exposition. Nearby, historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave academic lectures reflecting on
19584-453: Was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white staff , gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 "great buildings". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by
19728-538: Was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art . Architect Kirtland Cutter 's Idaho Building , a rustic log construction, was a popular favorite, visited by an estimated 18 million people. The building's design and interior furnishings were a major precursor of the Arts and Crafts movement . Among the other attractions at
19872-563: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as
20016-458: Was hired by Hutchinson to design a building that would create an "impressive presence" on Michigan Avenue, and these facilities opened to great fanfare in 1887. With the announcement of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the institute afterwards. The city agreed, and
20160-458: Was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. The Midway Plaisance , a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago , which was being built as the fair
20304-416: Was significantly augmented when collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gifted 40 plus master works to the department in 2015. Pablo Picasso 's Old Guitarist , Henri Matisse 's Bathers by a River , Constantin Brâncuși 's Golden Bird , and René Magritte 's Time Transfixed are highlights of the modern galleries, located on the third floor of the Modern Wing. The contemporary installation, located on
20448-571: Was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from the 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in
20592-461: Was the first world's fair to have national pavilions. They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national "delegates"; for example, Haiti selected Frederick Douglass to be its delegate. The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors. The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the Chicago Woman's Club petitioned that it stay open. The club felt that if the exposition
20736-462: Was the first world's fair with an area for amusements that was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, developed by a young music promoter, Sol Bloom , concentrated on Midway Plaisance and introduced the term "midway" to American English to describe the area of a carnival or fair where sideshows are located. It included carnival rides, among them the original Ferris Wheel , built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. This wheel
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