See All These Awesome Sights at NCVS in Chicago
We hope National Conference on Volunteering and Service attendees will take some time to enjoy all of the amazing attractions that Chicago has to offer. Check out just a few of our suggestions.
Founded in 1879 as both a museum and school, The Art Institute of Chicago first stood on the southwest corner of State and Monroe Streets. It opened on its present site at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in 1893. Built on rubble from the 1871 Chicago fire, the museum housed a collection of plaster casts and had a visionary purpose: to acquire and exhibit art of all kinds and to conduct programs of education. The collection now encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and the school’s graduate program is continually ranked as one of the best in the country. Within the next decade, a new complex will continue this process of growth.
The Museum of Contemporary Art
One of the nation’s largest facilities devoted to the art of our time, the Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) offers exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art created since 1945. The MCA documents contemporary visual culture through painting, sculpture, photography, video and film, and performance. Located in the heart of downtown Chicago, the MCA boasts a gift store, bookstore, restaurant, 300-seat theater and a terraced sculpture garden with a great view of Lake Michigan. (Insert picture to the right of paragraph)
Since opening in July 2004, the Park has been visited by millions, making it one of the most popular local, national and international destinations. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers. Discover the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States. Visit the Crown Fountain. Become a kid again when you stand in front of artist Jaume Plensa’s 50-foot glass block towers of flowing water that project the video images of 1,000 different Chicagoans. Explore the breathtaking Lurie Garden in all four seasons of the year designed by the team of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum immerses visitors in one of the grandest residential buildings of 19th-century Chicago, the Gilded Age home of banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson. Chicago philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus founded the museum on April 1, 2003 with a vision to influence today’s built environment by preserving and promoting architecture and design of the past. To realize his vision, Driehaus commissioned a five-year restoration effort to preserve the structure and its magnificent interiors. Today the galleries feature surviving furnishings paired with elegant, historically-appropriate pieces from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, including important works by such celebrated designers as the Herter Brothers and Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Today, the Museum is a premier example of historic preservation, offering visitors an opportunity to experience through interior architecture and objets d’art how the prevailing design philosophies of the period were interpreted by artists, architects and designers at the waning of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th century.
The National Conference on Volunteer and Service takes place June 18-20. Register now to join an elite group of practitioners, thought leaders and innovators in Chicago.
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