I have two favorite places in the world: museums and libraries. No matter what city I travel too, and I’ve been around a bit, I always hit the best museum in town and take a stroll through its galleries. Then I visit the public library where I find an old book and a table where I can sit and soak up the feel of the place for a bit.
In Chicago one of our finest museums is the Art
Institute Chicago
located in Grant Park. This is a photograph from one of the terraces at the museum.
It features a collection of Impressionist
and Post-Impressionist
art in its permanent collection. Its holdings also include American art,
Old Masters, European and
American decorative
arts, Asian art,
modern and contemporary art, architecture and
industrial and graphic design. In addition, it houses the Ryerson &
Burnham Libraries on the main level.
Claude Monet Springtime
Tracing its
history to a free art school and gallery founded in 1866, the museum is located
at 111 South
Michigan Avenue in the Chicago Landmark Historic
Michigan Boulevard District. It is associated with the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago and at one million square feet and it is
the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
On a personal
note, the Art Institute was one of the first museums I ever went to as a child
and I remember being awestruck by so much beauty. I also had my first date with
my husband there on July 14, 1990. An interesting piece of trivia is that the
bronze lions that guard the front entrance of the museum have name: Stands in
an Attitude of Defiance and On the Prowl. The statues were created by Edward
Camay for the World’s Columbia Exposition in 1893 and have been a symbol of
Chicago for more than 110 years.
Happy summertime travels and if you come to Chicago the Art Institute is a must see!
Elizabeth Marx
