page_title: Art Institute of Chicago
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Art Institute of Chicago / History
context_page_description: The Art Institute of Chicago is an art museum in Grant Park, Chicago. The Art Institute owns one of the world's best collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. It also owns important American art, Old Masters, European and American decorative arts, Asian art and modern and contemporary art. The museum is linked with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. James Cuno is its Director and President. Its buildings have one million square feet of space. It is the second largest art museum in the United States. Only the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has more space.
context_section_description: In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street. The group wanted to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as the Royal Academy. People who worked there were called Academians and Associate Academians. The Academy's charter was granted in March 1867.
  Classes started in 1868. Classes met every day. Students paid the school US$10 per month. The new Academy was a success. The school next built a five story stone building at 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870.
  When the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871, the Academy began to owe a lot of money.  The Academy tried and failed by renting facilities. By 1878, the Academy owed $10,000. Members tried to rescue the weak institution by making deals with local businesses. Some people gave up in 1879 and started a new new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets in an auction.
  In 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current name, Art Institute of Chicago. The same year, it purchased a lot on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $45,000. The school rented the property's existing building, and a new building was constructed behind it to house the school's facilities.
  While Chicago planned how to host the 1892–93 World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair), the Art Institute wanted a new building.  The Art Institute proposed that the city build a permanent building on the lakefront for the fair and give the new building to the Institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were paid by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the Institute moved into the new building. This building is now called the Allerton Building. It faces Michigan Avenue on the west and the Illinois Central Railroad track on the east.
  From the 1900s to the 1960s, the school offered with the Logan Family (members of the board) the Logan Medal of the Arts. The Logan Medal became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the US. In 1924, the museum building expanded to the east by bridging over the railroad tracks with a new wing on the east side of the tracks.
  Between 1959 and 1970, some people did not think that photos (art and documentary photography) were serious art that should be shown in art galleries.  The Institute fought to change people's minds to accept such photos. Photo curator Hugh Edwards lead this fight.
  As Director of the museum starting in the early 1980s, James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw a major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. The New York Times called Wood "one of the most respected museum leaders in the country". Wood created major exhibitions of works by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004.
  In 2006, the Art Institute began building its new "The Modern Wing". The new wing is on the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe. Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano designed the new wing. It opened to the public on May 16, 2009.  The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m²) building makes the Art Institute the second largest art museum in the United States.  The building houses the museum’s world-renowned collections of 20th- and 21st-century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography.
caption: Georges-Pierre Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte 1884–1886
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