 |
Must - Visit Museums and More in Chicago and Beyond this Summer UK travellers to Illinois can enjoy world-class art and museum exhibitions throughout the state this summer. With its own Museum of Contemporary Art, Science Museum, Aquarium, Nature Museum and newly opened Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, there's something for everyone! Visitors can also make the most of Chicago's short break status and catch up with any missed touring exhibitions. A selection of both permanent and temporary exhibits provides the perfect excuse to visit this season.
Visitors to the museum complex, which includes the already-open Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, enter the museum’s two state-of-the-art "exhibit journeys" off a 4,700-square-foot central interior plaza. Each journey makes a different time and aspect of Lincoln’s life come alive, from his meager beginnings to his assassination. Honouring one of the most revered presidents in U.S. history nearly two centuries after his birth, the museum portion of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum was opened by U.S. President George W. Bush in April 2005. The museum's dedication was attended by nearly 20,000 visitors. This state-of-the art 'edu-tainment' facility tells the story of Lincoln employing 21st-century technology to make the 19th century live again. The 100,000 square foot museum boasts breakthrough innovations such as Holovision, a special effects illusion corridor, and multi-layered, wrap around digital projections. Children will be able to talk and interact with holograms of Abraham Lincoln in special sections of the museum.
The installation studies the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the most popular and important painters of the late 19th century Paris. Re-evaluating the decadent worldview of fin-de-siecle Paris, the exhibition focuses on the artist's work between 1888 - 1896 and Montmartre - a centre of licit and illicit entertainment at the time.
One of the most innovative artists of the late twentieth century, Jamaican born Dan Flavin is best known for works that consist almost entirely of fluorescent tubes in nine colours and five shapes. Large presentations of Flavin's art have rarely been seen due to the site-specific nature of many of the pieces. This exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to his achievement as a major proponent of minimalism and includes forty-five light works made between 1961 and 1963.
The most highly attended touring exhibition in the world, Dr. Gunther von Hagen's controversial 'Body Worlds' exhibit comes to Chicago. In this eye-opening exhibition, visitors learn about anatomy, physiology and health by viewing real human bodies that have been preserved with special plastics through the process of "plastination." The exhibit's 200 authentic human specimens - including entire bodies, individual healthy and diseased organs, and transparent body slices - give the general public an inspiring, rare view of the many layers and systems under the skin, and make clear the relationship between healthy lifestyles and healthy bodies. Fun for Kids Burpee Museum of Natural History - Discovered in 2001, the newest addition to the Burpee is being unveiled on 29 June 2005, Jane: Diary of a Dinosaur. Estimated to be 66 million years old, Jane has 50% of her skeleton in-tact and experts are still debating whether Jane is a Tyrannosaurs Rex or Nanotyrannus. A permanent exhibition featuring computer-generated animations and hands-on activities tell Jane's story. The Field Museum - Chicago's own national history museum and home to Sue, the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, who celebrated her 5th birthday in May 2005. John G. Shedd Aquarium - Wild Reef, Sharks at Shedd - The newest exhibition at one of the oldest and biggest aquariums in the world contains over 750,000 gallons of water. Floor to ceiling windows provide a diver's view of sharks and other predators in 26 interconnected habitats. Plus a visit to the Oceanarium provides an intimate encounter with whales, dolphins, sea otters and penguins. Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum - Animal Grossology - Sequel to Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body, the exhibition shows why cats spew hairballs, skunks stink, and other equally gross and fascinating wonders of the animal kingdom.
More information and website links to all these museums can be found at www.gochicago.com. |
|
|
|
 |
|
