Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. It is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Internationally recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, is encyclopedic, and 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 is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.
The Art Institute of Chicago seen from Michigan Avenue | |
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| Established | 1879; in present location since 1893 |
|---|---|
| Location | 111 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60603, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 41°52′46″N 87°37′26″W |
| Collection size | 300,000 works |
| Visitors | 1.04 million (2022) |
| Director | James Rondeau |
| Public transit access | CTA Bus routes: (6 and 28 line) 'L' and Subway stations: Adams-Wabash: Brown Line Green Line Orange Line Pink Line Purple Line Monroe/State: Red Line Monroe/Dearborn: Blue Line Metra Train: Van Buren Street Station |
| Website | artic.edu |
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 growth of the collection has warranted several additions to the museum's 1893 building, which was constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition. The most recent expansion, the Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano, opened in 2009 and increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet, making it the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Art Institute 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.