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The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States.
In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street with the intent to run a free art school and establish their own gallery.
Thus, the Academy’s success allowed it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building inaugurated on November 22, 1870.
Furthermore, thanks to the significant growth of the collection, the museum expanded over time. The most recent expansion, the modern wing designed by Renzo Piano, was inaugurated in 2009.
The museum hosts about 1.5 million visitors each year. Its collection includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper Nighthawks and Grant Wood American Gothic.
Its permanent collection contains nearly 300,000 works of art. Additionally, two galleries at the south end of the building display the Art Institute’s African and Indigenous Americas art collections.
The museum acquired Nighthawks in 1942 for $3,000; its acquisition “launched” the painting, considered “an icon of American culture.”
