Thursday, May 21, 2009

Greetings!
I made my way down to
The Art Institute of Chicago.
The fabulous new Modern Wing was just
opened on May 16, 2009!
The museum is FREE the entire first
week - until May 22, 2009.
If you are in Chi-town or here for a visit...
be sure to check it out!
Here's the link:
Visit for times and info about the collection and new wing!


I started my visit across the street in Millennium Park.
Here's a picture of The Crown Fountain by artist Jaume Plensa.
It was a beautiful day here yesterday so the park was filled with
people playing and enjoying the park.
Faces of Chicago citizens change on the huge screens and
water flows from their mouth to surprised children below!
I crossed the new Nichols Bridgeway - over Monroe Street
a 625 ft. pedestrian bridge by architect
Renzo Piano (who designed the entire new Modern Wing)
to start my visit at the museum.

The bridge was quite breathtaking and offered
amazing views of the park, the skyline and even the lake!





Here's a picture of the new Modern Wing from the bridge.


Here's a picture looking back at the park -
the Jay Pritzker Pavilion by Frank Gehry.




The beautiful Chicago skyline from the bridge!




Here's a picture looking back at the park from the entrance
of the museum - Modern Wing 3rd floor pavilion.
The patio was covered with interesting stone chairs that
visitors were relaxing on!




Another picture of the bridge I just crossed to
get to the entrance.

What a wonderful way to start a museum visit!




Here's a picture inside the museum...
it was filled with visitors taking advantage of the free day
and checking out the new museum.
It was beautiful and open and filled with light.
(And lots of people!)




The gallery just feels exciting to be inside!





Here's a new balcony cafe. People were enjoying coffee breaks -
browsing the small gift shop and enjoying the new space!




The galleries were amazing -
the artwork of course incredible!

The new wing contains:

Architecture and Design,

Contemporary Art after 1960, and

Contemporary Art 1945-1960.


The Pritzker Garden was still under construction -
so, I'll have to check it out next time.


I randomly ran into some good friends in one of the galleries -
so, I forgot to take some pics of the artwork.
I may go back tomorrow for a quick visit because I enjoyed
it so much...if I do...I'll post some of the artwork!!

Enjoy!

1 comment:

SonaDesignCo said...

I will have to stop by ...I can't beleive I didn't go...as students we get to go free !
Anyway, I was admiring your journals and wanted to comment on the amazing craftsmanship and hard work you put into it. I've made and bound quiet a few books & I sure know the difficulty involved with working with leather and etc.
Good luck in future work.