The Art Institute of Chicago was founded in the late 19th century in Grant Park, Chicago. America’s largest and oldest art museum is incredibly popular. Every year, more than 1.5 million people visit this place. The permanent collection includes almost 300000 works of art. In addition, the specialists of the Institute hold more than 30 exhibitions of different orientations every year.
This museum is also the oldest educational institution to date. Within this Institute, about 3000 students are trained. In addition to the traditional professions, people can get a vocation in demand, such as computer graphics, art therapy, and animation. The museum is one of the largest impressionist collections in the world.
Location of the Museum
This Institute is near the shores of Lake Michigan. At the entrance to the museum, there are the sculptures of two copper lions, which are themselves famous attractions of the city, and they meet all visitors.
The Great Chicago Fire destroyed the first building that housed the Academy, and millions of Americans are grieving for it. However, the new one was erected in the Art Deco style for the World Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. When the exhibition was over, specialists gave the site permanent possession to the institute.
Collection
This museum will show you a great deal of art. The main sight is one of the best collections of paintings created in America within the framework of Western culture.
In addition, this museum will show you:
- African art. This collection contains over 400 works, including jewellery, ceramics, masks and wardrobes.
- American Art. It includes the most famous works. In the collection, there are exhibits ranging from colonial silver to modern paintings.
- Byzantine and ancient. The collection contains approximately 5000 works, such as bronze, sculpture, glass, jewellery, ceramics, mosaics and ancient coins.
- Design and architecture. This collection contains over 140000 works, from sketches to drawings from the 18th century to the present day.
- Art of Asia. It contains 35000 items, including jade, ceramics, bronze, sculptures, textiles and woodwork.
- Decorative art of Europe. In this collection, there are approximately 25000 exhibits, among which are ivory, metal, enamel, glass and furniture.
- Painting and sculpture of Europe. This collection includes paintings by post-impressionists and expressionists, as well as armour, weapons and works of art.
- Photography. It includes about 20000 works that span the history of the world from the creation of this art form to the present day.
In total, the whole collection of this museum contains approximately 300000 paintings, which make it one of the largest paintings in America. It is also a large research centre and has one of the largest libraries and its own laboratories.
The exhibition of armour and weapons is one of the most popular and unique exhibitions of the Institute. Nevertheless, you can check out this museum and other art styles.
The Museum’s collections acquire new exhibits regularly, and so the building grows larger and gets new premises. The main building received its last extension in 2009. This allowed the museum to have an area of one million square feet.
