Photo Friday

I recently ran across these photos from a trip we took out to Chicago several years ago.

I always love visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, primarily because of their excellent collection of Impressionist-era paintings.

Seeing the big lions out front, decked out in their holiday finery, is also always fun to see.

I remember one year when we visited the museum the day after Thanksgiving. A long line of people queued up at the front of the building, waiting for it to open for the day.

Chicago has a weekly news magazine called Streetwise. The publication employs vendors who are currently homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, to sell newspapers on city streets and create at least a small opportunity for them to earn income.

A Streetwise vendor hawked papers in front of the museum that day with the promise that he’d tell museum visitors the location of the entrance with no lines to get in with their paper purchase.

Most folks ignored him.

Now, I like reading local publications, so I usually will purchase local papers or pick up the freebies.

I’d heard about this paper and its sales system. Plus, it was a cold day and even as the museum was set to open within minutes, standing around in a long outside line to get in didn’t sound like a lot of fun.

So, I bought a paper.

Soon we were around on the back side of the museum and walking into the warm building, while the folks out front were still freezing in line waiting to get inside.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2008

Comments

[minnemom]

Very interesting story! I, too, love the Art Institute. I didn't know they decked out the lions for the holidays, though!

[Kim@Galavanting]

I just moved to Chicago in March and love going to the Art Institute. The kids love the street performers outside when it's warm, but that is a great tip for winter visits!

[Angela Nickerson]

Truly one of my favorite museums!

[Janna Qualman]

I love Chicago! Great pictures.

And thanks for stopping by my blog!

[Jennifer]

Chicago ranks up on my top ten list right now! It is a city that I am longing to see. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures. I especially love the one in the museum.

[Rachel Burton]

I love the Art Institute! I got to see a Hopper exhibit there last spring and it was phenomenal. And now I'm curious about this secret entrance. Hmmm...

[Dominique King]

I do love the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is a must-see every time we get out that way. Checking out their mail order catalog is fun as well.

We're fortunate enough to have some really nice art museums here in the Midwest.
I'm a long-time member of our own Institute of Arts here in Detroit...we have a great collection and schedule of shows, plus the museum's recent renovation makes it even more fun to visit.
The Art Museum in Cleveland Ohio is undergoing a particularly ambitious renovation at this point, but they've had a couple of shows worth traveling out to see in the past couple of years (including the Monet to Dali show I saw there last year that is showing at the Detroit museum now...I blogged about that a month or so back).
And the art museum in Toledo Ohio has a particularly nice collection of glass...because of that city's link to the Libbey Glass Company.

I feel some more artsy blog posts coming on for the new year :)

[Dominique King]

Here's the URL of my post about the Monet to Dali show now at Detroit

http://www.midwestguest.com/2008/10/monet-to-dal%C3%AD.html

The Barcelona show at Cleveland two years ago was a really good exhibit, too. It covered the art, cultural, political, literary, architectural scenes in that Spanish city from somewhere in the late-1800s to the era of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Fascinating stuff!

[byteful traveller]

Gotta love AIC.

Great story about the Streetwise vendors! They really do know what they're talking about. I came into contact with one at that same spot. Humorous guy, I wonder if we saw the same one.