The Art Institute, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery open new shows this week. more ›

Free admission at the DuSable Museum, the Art Institute closes Three Graces, and other art events. more ›

The Art Institute got a major grant from the Indian government today, 12 people were injured in overnight shootings, the Jean Banchet Awards were handed out last night, and other news. more ›

Chicago museums and galleries close several shows today and hold openings throughout the week. more ›

The Art Institute of Chicago's new exhibit shows a glimpse of that brief period of time when Americans and Soviets begrudgingly got along. more ›

Cannes loves Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His first feature, 2002's Blissfully Yours, snagged the Un Certain Regard trophy, which recognizes young talent and innovation. Two years later his second film, Tropical Malady, became the first Thai film in competition at the festival and emerged with a special Jury Prize. Finally, his mesmerizing Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won last year's Palme d'Or. All he needs is the Grand Prix to hit for the cycle at the world's most prestigious film festival and put the cherry on top of a mountain of critical accolades, but the Eurpoean cognoscenti aren't the only ones who love Weerasethakul. There's more than enough for him here in Chicago, where he is known simply as "Joe." more ›

Early this morning, Chicago's first lady Maggie Daley was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, her doctor Dr. Steven Rosen, and Mayor Richard Daley's spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard told the Chicago Tribune. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2002, Daley had her right leg reinforced with a metal plate during surgery last year. Discomfort in the same leg early this morning caused her to be admitted to the hospital. According to Heard, Mayor Daley has canceled his public schedule for the rest of the day and is with his wife at the hospital. "They've conducted some tests, and are waiting for the results," Heard said to the Tribune. more ›

Last week, i was at Terzo Piano looking at cocktails, and I decided to stay for lunch. I don't usually think of art museums as pizza destinations, but when the crew behind Spiaggia is involved, I guess I should have higher expectations for their Italian specialities. This pizza (or pizzetta) blew me away. Normally made with home-made chorizo, last week's version was made with short ribs. Either way, the combination of roasted fennel, onions, meat and cheshire cheese made for the perfect lunch dish. The pizzetta ($16) is easily enough to feed two people. Go for it. more ›

The Art Institute has put together a stellar exhibit with John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism, and Marin’s work is surprising on both planes. He defies traditional watercolor methods to produce paintings that are radical, colorful testimonies to the urban architecture of New York City, the craggy shorelines and pine trees of Maine, and the mountainous forms of New Mexico. The New York paintings are extraordinary—the buildings and trees sway together like dancers, no small achievement for a painter who had no formal training in watercolors. Marin’s exuberance comes through both in painting and in word: “There come days when I am glad to be alive and just to see the wonderful city in its different aspects and then say I will! I will! I will!” more ›

Think of the best, most thoughtful holiday card you've ever given. Now prepare to feel bad about your feeble effort as we tell you about the card composer Augusta Read Thomas gave flutist Claire Chase in 2008 that contained "Euterpe's Caprice," a two-minute solo work dedicated to Chase. As of posting, we cannot determine whether the card also contained a tedious summary of the achievements and news of Thomas's family that year. Anyhow, you can hear "Euterpe's Caprice" and other works for free at a concert put on by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), one of our favorite new-music groups kinda-sorta based in town (they split their time between here and New York), at the Art Institute this Friday evening. more ›

The Art Institute’s current run of free days reminded us of one of the museum’s coolest and most memorable features. No, not the lions, the impressionists, or super-cool suits of armor (oh, we’ve loved that gallery since our awkward Dungeons and Dragons phase). Tucked away in a quiet section on the first floor you will find a space devoted to one of the art world’s most unique collections: The Clarence Buckingham Gallery which highlights one of the nation’s largest collections of Japanese woodblock prints. more ›

Nothing says happy holidays like too much time stuck inside with the family. Besides, the next week or two will bring an end to a lot of great exhibits around town, so consider this your last chance to get out and see some fantastic shows we’ve mentioned before. Get your family out of the house, see great art, maintain family togetherness. Win-win-win. more ›

Whether you love spending time with your family or need to get them out of the house (or both), today’s a great day to take (or send) your out-of-town visitors to one of Chicago’s museums. There are some great exhibits showing, so skip Black Friday and work off your tryptophan hangover with some culture. While we think the crowds will be a lot more pleasant at the Art Institute than the mall, this is a busy day for museums, so plan accordingly. more ›

Our relationship with art might not quite be symbiotic, but we sure do like it. Here are three exhibits we think you can't (or shouldn't) live without this week at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Tony Wight Gallery. more ›

Last week we brought you some cool contemporary shows to check out. This week, we’ve rounded up a list of exhibits that look a little further to the past. more ›

On Monday, October 11, Terzo Piano will be hosting a delectable-sounding "Farm to Fork Fest." Several of our favorite chefs will be cooking, including Allison and Rob Leavitt of Mado and Jason Hammel and Amalea Tshilds of Lula Café. Josh Adams of June (in Peoria) will also be joining the team. Any chance to have locally-sourced food cooked in front of you by this team is worth the $125 price tag - and if that wasn't enough, all the proceeds are going to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. more ›

• Ald. Bernie Stone (50th) is in no hurry to retire and announced he'll seek reelection next year.
• A bomb threat created a bit of havoc in the Loop this morning but no explosive devices were found.
• Citing a long list of issues, the Art Institute of Chicago has filed a lawsuit against Ove Arup & Partners International for what they claim is shoddy work on the Modern Wing.

Last week we brought you some not-to-be-missed museum exhibits that are closing this week. This week we’re rounding up a few exhibits that are kicking off the fall season. Rest up over Labor Day weekend and then add these to your calendar: more ›

We hate to admit it, but the unofficial end of summer is nearly upon us. Since this will be the last weekend before Labor Day, we wanted to give you a heads up to the many art exhibits that will be closing in the next two weeks around town. We know it's hard to think about heading indoors when the weather is this beautiful, but we think you won't want to miss some of these: more ›

The Art Institute has relegated a gem of an exhibit to the basement, sandwiched between offices and long, dim hallways, but Looking After Louis Sullivan: Photographs, Drawings, and Fragments is worth leaving the airy Modern Wing for. It features the work of three photographers—John Szarkowski, Richard Nickel, and Aaron Siskind—who documented Louis Sullivan’s architecture in the 1950s, three decades after Sullivan died in near obscurity. more ›

With a few exhibits at the Field Museum already donning the red and black to support the Blackhawks, the Art Institute Lions have now gotten in on the act. At a special ceremony this morning featuring an appearance by legend Bobby Hull, Blackhawks helmets were placed atop the Lions where they'll remain for the duration of the Stanley Cup Finals. Check out even more photos here. more ›

A new exhibit at the Art Institute brings illustrations from children's book to the museum's walls. more ›

A year after its opening, the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago has received the environmental certification it was seeking. The U.S. Green Building Council awarded the building with LEED Silver last week, says the Tribune's architecture critic Blair Kamin. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and the silver level is below platinum and gold as the third-highest rating. The certification governs five areas of a building's construction and existence: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. more ›

The Art Institute’s Matisse exhibit is beautifully spare and concise - white walls, no visual distractions - and in many ways echoes the art itself. Subtitled Radical Invention 1913-1917, the works in this exhibit were created at the height of World War I, and many of them bear the fervor and darkness of war, painted in shades of olive greens and murky grays not typically associated with Matisse. The exhibit was built upon a key painting already in the Art Institute’s collection, Bathers by a River, named by Matisse himself as being “most pivotal” to his work. more ›

• Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the city's first lady, Maggie Daley, who had a foot-long titanium rod inserted into her right leg today.
• A look at the city's recycling program and the contracts at its center.
• Strange happenings at the Art Institute this morning.

If you walked by the Art Institute’s Modern Wing earlier this week, you might have wondered if they were promoting a new exhibit on street art. Bright graffiti stretched for 50 feet along a light stone wall, bookended by the words “Modern Art” and “made you look.” While Chicagoist in no way condones illegal activity of any sort, we have to admit that this graffiti raises some interesting questions about the accessibility of art. It’s unlikely the tagging was gang-related, and it seems to be a pre-meditated, self-referential joke about art. more ›

With admission prices creeping toward $20, we understand if you've put off checking out the Art Institute's Modern Wing. But no more excuses: for the entire month of February, the Art Institute is free. more ›

And now for some good news: the city's museums saw a seven percent increase in 2009 over 2008 as 14.8 million people visited 14 Chicago-area museums and zoos in 2009. Tops was the Shedd Aquarium - which got a bounce from its revamped Oceanarium - with 1.9 million visitors. The Art Institute saw a huge bounce of 32 percent for a total of 1.8 million visitors, the new Modern Wing overcoming any negative reaction to the new admission fee hike. And the MSI, which also had a small admissions hike, had 1.6 million visitors, buoyed by the Harry Potter and You! exhibits. The Field Museum was the other museum to break the million visitor barrier with 1.3 million. Meanwhile, according to the Museums in the Park press release, the Lincoln Park Zoo welcomed an estimated 3 million visitors while the Brookfield Zoo had 2.2 million visitors. [CBS 2] more ›

When you’re a dancer, your career ends a lot earlier than most because unfortunately, your body stops cooperating past a certain point. So unless you’re Mikhail Baryshnikov (who is still dancing at 61), you need to transition into a different career. And like many athletes become coaches, dancers become choreographers. However, learning the trade can be tricky so Hubbard Street Dance Center gives its company the opportunity to choreograph for the workshop “Inside/Out,” which goes up tonight. more ›

In an effort to balance next year’s budget, the Art Institute of Chicago is laying off 22 staff members, accounting for 3% of their workforce. The cuts are being made across the board, and take effect immediately; employees were notified on Thursday. more ›