Archive for the 'Museums' Category
Way back in 2007, we took Michelle and the Prince to BlogHer in Chicago. We had a hard time getting home, to say the least, and found ourselves in the city on a Monday with nothing to do before our flight left. So, we wandered Michigan Ave. We ended up at the Museum of Contemporary Art where there were some great outdoor pieces and we were dying to go inside. Unfortunately, that museum is closed on Mondays. Just another nail in the Chicago 2007 coffin.
Michelle has always wanted to go back when it was open but last time she was here, we went to the good ole Art Institute so for this visit, I made sure we went to MCAChicago.
We planned to visit after the Chess Records trip and before the Filene’s shopping. We did not plan for a very long lunch break at Mity Nice and we also did not plan for the museum to close quite as early as it did. When we arrived, we had just over one hour… we were worried and we should not have been.
It’s a tiny little museum. An hour was plenty of time to see it all and to spend an awful lot of time in the museum store. I liked the Calders the best and I know TW did too. I’m not sure what Michelle liked the best, probably the nifty gift shop, heh. Just kidding. I think she liked the paintings on the top floor the best.
I asked Michelle a half dozen times what she wanted to do when she visited Chicago and I really didn’t expect her to come up with more than “shop”. But she did. She said she wanted to go see the old Chess Records building. Huh. Not something I’d have thought to do but I was game.
The building houses the BluesHeaven foundation and has a small gift shop downstairs, lots of photos and LPs and blues paraphernalia in all of the rooms of the building and shows a video about the history of Blues.
It was really an interesting little trip and I think we all enjoyed visiting. You should go. Before you do, read these links:
We found ourselves at Intuit last weekend for the Flea Circus.
Entrance to Intuit
Once we were inside (by the way, parking on the street wasn’t a problem at 3:30pm on a Saturday. I didn’t get a free space but a meter at the corner was open and there were plenty of free and metered spots around the entire block and across the street) the place isn’t big but it’s interesting!
The exhibits we saw were Sticks (everyone, even the grouchy teens, found something that interested them in that exhibit and Liz wants to make some of her own Stick art) and the Drawings of Joseph E Yokum. Nice. The Henry Darger Room was indescribable. Seriously. Click the link and check the panorama shot.
I’ve got Intuit on my list to check regularly for interesting shows (like the Flea Circus) and cool exhibitions.
Michelle, Chris & I went to The Art Institute of Chicago a couple of days after Christmas and had a wonderful time. It’s hard to say what our favorite parts were… the Monets, certainly. The Renoirs, definitely. The retro furniture, yes but they need more! Michelle loved the Roman sculptures and the touch room was fun, too.
We struggled with the layout of the museum - it seems as though we were constantly lost and two of us are pretty darn good with a map. I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite as lost in a museum as we were in this one.