The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a

Chicago Landmark Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artist ...

building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Cultural Center houses the city's official reception venue, where the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

has welcomed presidents, royalty, diplomats, and community leaders. It is located in the Loop, across Michigan Avenue from

Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Chicago Loop, Loop Community areas of Chicago, community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in July 2004, is a prominent civic center near t ...

. Originally the main library of the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

, the building was converted in 1978 to an arts and culture center at the instigation of Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg. The city's central library is now located across the Loop in the spacious,

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

-style Harold Washington Library Center, which opened in 1991. As the nation's first free municipal cultural center, the Chicago Cultural Center is one of the city's most popular attractions and is considered one of the most comprehensive arts showcases in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Each year, the Chicago Cultural Center features more than 1,000 programs and exhibitions covering a wide range of the performing, visual and literary arts. It also serves as headquarters for the

Chicago Children's Choir Uniting Voices Chicago (formerly the Chicago Children's Choir) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1956 at First Unitarian Church of Chicago. Organization Founded in Hyde Park in 1956, Uniting Voices has grown from one choir into a network ...

Architecture

The building was designed by Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge for the city's central library, and

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (United States Navy, U.S. Navy), and the United States Marine Corps, Marines who served in the American Ci ...

(GAR) meeting hall and memorial in 1892. The land was donated by the GAR and the building was completed in 1897 at a cost of nearly $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ). It is organized as a four-story north wing (77 East Randolph entrance) and a five-story south wing (78 East Washington entrance), tall, with masonry walls faced with Bedford Blue Limestone on a granite base. The building is designed in a generally neoclassical style, with Italian Renaissance elements. It is capped with two stained-glass domes, set symmetrically atop the two wings. Key points of architectural interest are as follows: * Randolph Street entrance and stairway - Entrance with doric columns, mahogany doors, and entry hall with

coffered ceiling A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

and walls of green-veined

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

marble. The curving stairway is faced with Knoxville pink marble, and features mosaics and ornate bronze balusters. * Washington Street entrance, lobby, and grand staircase - Arched portal, bronze-framed doors, and a three-story, vaulted lobby with walls of white

Carrara Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...

marble and mosaics. The staircase is also of white Carrara marble, set with medallions of green marble from

Connemara Connemara ( ; ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, and intricate mosaics of

Favrile Favrile glass is a term originally used as a trade name for art glass produced at Tiffany Furnaces, a glassmaking factory owned by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In modern times, the term is often used to describe the type of iridescent glass Tiffany p ...

glass, stone, and mother of pearl. The stairway to the 5th floor was inspired by

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Bridge of Sighs The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: ''Ponte dei Sospiri'', ) is a bridge in Venice, Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison (''Prigioni Nuove'') t ...

. *

Memorial - A large hall and rotunda in the north wing. The hall is faced with deep green

marble, broken by a series of arches for windows and mahogany doors. The rotunda features walls of Knoxville pink marble, mosaic floor, and a fine, stained-glass dome in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

pattern by the firm of Healy and Millet. * Sidney R. Yates Gallery - replica of an assembly hall in the

Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace (''Doge'' pronounced ; ; ) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic architecture, Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and th ...

, with heavily ornamented

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and coffered ceiling. * Preston Bradley Hall - A large, ornately patterned room of curving white

Carrara marble Carrara marble, or Luna marble (''marmor lunense'') to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara ...

, capped with a

Tiffany glass Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1929–1930 at the Tiffany Studios in New York City, by Louis Comfort Tiffany and a team of other designers, including Clara Driscoll, Agnes F. Northr ...

dome designed by artist J. A. Holzer using glass and turtleback jewels manufactured by Kokomo Opalescent Glass. The Cultural Center states this to be the largest Tiffany dome in the world.

Renovation

The Chicago Cultural Center underwent an extensive renovation during 2021–2022 with the goal of unearthing the original beauty of the building. The detailed restoration of the art glass dome and decorative finishes in the Grand Army of the Republic rooms, a Civil War memorial, was made possible by a grant of services valued at over $15 million to the City of Chicago. The Chicago Cultural Center is home to two noteworthy stained glass domes. Chicago-based Harboe Architects was awarded the project. The scope of the project included recreating long-lost light fixtures, cleaning and polishing old marble, restoring mahogany doors, installing new glass, and removing layers of paint in the historic rooms. Also included in the scope was the complete restoration of the diameter Tiffany-designed stained glass dome, which had become covered in grime and paint. The dome contains over 60,000 individual pieces of glass. Daprato Rigali Studios of Chicago performed the stained-glass dome restoration.

Past exhibitions

''Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910–1930'' was a display of art by Ukrainian artists, such as Sukher Ber Rybak, Vsevolod Maskymovych, and Oleksandr Bohomazov, to name a few. ''Crossroads'' was organized by the Foundation for International Arts and Education with the

National Art Museum of Ukraine The National Art Museum of Ukraine ( ) is a museum dedicated to Ukrainian art in Kyiv, Ukraine. History The National Art Museum of Ukraine, which was the first museum in Kyiv to be freely open to the public, was founded at the end of the 19th c ...

. It was presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Kyiv Committee of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program. The exhibition ran from July 22, 2006 until October 15, 2006. Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture was a major exhibition of sixty sculptures spanning Hunt's career. The exhibition drew primarily from his extensive "self-collection", lent to the center for the show. This exhibition ran from December 6, 2014, through March 29, 2015.

"Rush More" mural

In 2017, Kerry James Marshall was commissioned to produce an inaugural mural for a public arts program. The mural entitled "Rush More" is located on the west façade of the cultural center. The piece is an homage to women who have contributed to the culture of Chicago. Portrayed are: Washington painted the mural on a scale rendering of the building. The piece was then transposed to the actual façade by the muralist Jeff Zimmerman. Financing for the project was made possible by the non-profit, Murals of Acceptance and through philanthropic donations from David Arquette,

Patricia Arquette Patricia Arquette (; born April 8, 1968) is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'' (1987) and has since received several awards, including an Academy Award, two P ...

Marc Benioff Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. Benioff is best known as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the software company Salesforce, as well as being the owner of ''Time (magazine ...

, and Lynne Benioff.

References

External links