Last week, you read about the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago History Museum, and the Shedd Aquarium. This week, we shine the spotlight on three more spectacular Chicago museums. The next time the weather is poor and you feel like getting in touch with your cultural side, consider vacating your downtown Chicago apartment home for a few hours and visiting one of these marvelous museums.
Museum of Contemporary Art
The Art Institute of Chicago has, without a doubt, the most impressive and most comprehensive collection of encyclopedic art in all of Chicagoland. If 20th century art is what you are after, however, there is no better place for you to visit than the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in downtown Chicago. The MCA was initially created to complement the Art Institute’s collection, and it has done nothing but flourish since its opening in 1967. A handful of exhibitions are being shown right now, including a masterfully organized exhibit featuring works by Andy Warhol and Marisol Escobar that accentuates their personal and professional relationship. The exhibit runs through June 15, 2014. Located on Chicago’s Near North Side, the museum is just a short walk away from home for residents of AMLI River North, a luxury downtown Chicago apartment community.
Museum of Science and Industry
A few miles south of the downtown Chicago Museum Campus lies the largest science museum in the Western world. Established in 1933, the Museum of Science and Industry is a place that a curious soul can spend several straight days exploring without feeling bored or even coming close to seeing everything that is on offer. Through exploration of the museum’s 2,000+ exhibits, many of which are interactive, a visitor can get a real sense for how humankind has developed and what the legacy of this most recent age of progress will be. A model railroad, coal mine replica, and the Apollo 8 spacecraft are among this museum’s highlights.
The Field Museum
Sitting proudly on the downtown Chicago Museum Campus alongside the Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History is another museum that has hovered at the top of the list of cultural attractions in Chicago for some time, last honored for being the city’s most visited museum in 2006. Aided by Chicago’s rich experience as the host of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the Field Museum has managed to acquire a collection of some 25 million specimens. Whereas a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago takes a visitor on an exploratory adventure through a few thousand years of art history, a visitor to the Field Museum embarks on a journey that spans billions of years in time.
One of the museum’s most anxiously awaited exhibits recently opened, making now a great time to journey to the Field Museum. Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair will be on display until September 2014. A visit will reward you with marvels hardly seen by anyone since the last spectators at the Chicago World’s Fair filed off the grounds 120 years ago, but with a hindsight-driven perspective that attendees to the actual event did not have.
This two-part series has hardly scratched the surface of the proverbial treasure box that houses Chicago’s cultural and educational attractions. If you would like to read more about the esteemed museums and cultural institutions located not far from your downtown or suburban Chicago apartment, let us know! Your feedback may inspire us to shine the spotlight on a few more downtown Chicago cultural attractions.
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