Art & Museums, Museum

Winter Museum Update 2024

It’s a new year (relatively! It’s only February!) and while not everyone does the resolution thing, it’s never a bad idea to spend more time learning. Here in Chicago we […]

Marielle Bokor /
Art & Museums, Feature, Museum, Painting & sculpture

Dialogs: Chicago Humanities Festival Explores Colonial Looting, Museums and Restitution

“Colonial Looting, Museums and Restitution, a dialogue about the return of cultural objects” Purported looting by ordinary people made headlines during recent protests against institutional racism, but who are the […]

Karin McKie /
Architecture, Art & Museums, Installation, Mixed media, Museum

Review: Surveillance, Privacy, Erasure—Wrightwood 659 Exhibit Explores the Impact of Technology in Art

When the World Wide Web was new and shiny in the early ‘90s, futurists and other prognosticators had glowing predictions about the many ways it could change the world, including […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Art & Museums, Beyond, Feature, Museum, Travel feature

On the Road: POWs in the Midwest—A Road Trip to Algona, Iowa

How do you store 425,000 prisoners of war? What sounds like the setup for a tasteless joke was an actual concern for the US in World War II. England ran […]

Dan Kelly /
Art & Museums, Museum, Photography

Review: Exploring the History of Tattoos at the Swedish American Museum

Ado Ngo

The current exhibition at the Swedish American Museum—Tattoo: Identity Through Ink—takes an in-depth look into the history of tattoos as it traces tattoos from ancient civilizations to the present. The […]

Thomas Wawzenek /
Art & Museums, Design, Installation, Mixed media, Museum, Sculpture

Review: Design Museum Explores the Climate Crisis in At the Precipice—It’s Beautiful and Tragic

The beauty of art and the tragedy of the climate crisis live side by side in a stunning new exhibit at the Design Museum of Chicago. Some 30 pieces ranging […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Architecture, Art & Museums, Design, Installation, Museum

Review: At the Driehaus Museum, Hector Guimard Exhibit Explores the Work of the Paris Architect Who Designed Those Beloved Métro Stations

Hector Guimard was a French architect and designer who believed in designing the entire environment for living, in what he called Le Style Guimard. His integrated design work in the era […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Architecture, Art & Museums, Beyond, Museum, Travel feature

Feature: Afrofuturism and Black Excellence at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture

Chicago offers a variety of events to commemorate Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when America “officially freed” enslaved people. For an even deeper dive into the vast nation-building contributions of […]

Karin McKie /
Art & Museums, Gallery, Mixed media, Museum, Painting & sculpture, Sculpture

Review: The Sculptures of Dr. Charles Smith Address Racism from a Historical Perspective

Dr. Charles Smith

The current exhibition at the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) displays the artwork of Dr. Charles Smith (born 1940) who is a sculptor, a US Marine Corps Veteran of Vietnam, and […]

Thomas Wawzenek /
Art & Museums, Mixed media, Museum, Painting & sculpture

Review: Two Exhibitions at the DePaul Art Museum Explore Race, Gender and Class Issues

Joiri Minaya, “Container #7,”

A great way to spend a couple of hours this fall season is visiting the DePaul Art Museum where two new exhibitions are on display. On the main floor is […]

Thomas Wawzenek /
Art & Museums, Design, Gallery, Installation, Museum

Review: Hundreds of Clocks Show the Beauty and Absurdity of Time in New Design Museum Exhibit

Wall clocks. Alarm clocks. Wristwatches. Decorative clocks and boring clocks. Glorious gaudy glass clocks. Cuckoo clocks and kooky clocks. Artist Barbara Koenen has gathered hundreds of clocks over the years, […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Art & Museums, Museum, Photography

Review: Photo Exhibit Captures the Magic of the Blues at the Swedish American Museum

Bobby “Blue” Bland and B.B. King, 2010.

The latest exhibition at the Swedish American Museum, Great Feelings and Meetings, pays tribute to American blues music by showcasing the work of photographer Hans Ekestang who has been documenting […]

Thomas Wawzenek /