Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
remain today are the Hull-House Museum, the mansion itself, and the residents'
dining hall, snuggled among the ultramodern, poured-concrete buildings of the
university campus. Inside are the original furnishings, Jane Addams's office, and
numerous settlement maps and photographs. Rotating exhibits re-create the his-
tory of the settlement and the work of its residents, showing how Addams was
able to help transform the dismal streets around her into stable inner-city envi-
ronments worth fighting over. Allow a half-hour.
University of Illinois at Chicago, 800 S. Halsted St. (at Polk St.).
&
312/413-5353.
www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull.
Free admission. Tues-Fri 10am-4pm; Sun noon-4pm. Bus: 8. Subway/El: Blue Line to Halsted/University of Illinois.
Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
Chicago's vibrant Pilsen neigh-
borhood, just southwest of the Loop, is home to one of the nation's largest Mexi-
can-American communities. Ethnic pride emanates from every doorstep, taqueria,
and bakery, and the multitude of colorful murals splashed across building exteri-
ors and alleyways. But this building, the largest Latino cultural institution in the
country, may be the neighborhood's most prized possession. That's quite an
accomplishment, given that the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum was founded
in 1987 by a passel of public schoolteachers who pooled $900 to get it started.
This is truly a living museum. There are wonderful exhibits to be sure, show-
casing Mexican and Mexican-American visual and performing artists, and often
drawing on the museum's permanent collection of more than 2,400 works. But
it's the visiting artists, festival programming, and community participation that
make the museum really shine. Its Day of the Dead celebration, which runs for
about 8 weeks beginning in September, is one of the most ambitious in the coun-
try. The Del Corazon Mexican Performing Arts Festival, held in the spring, fea-
tures programs by local and international artists here and around town. And the
Sor Juana Festival, presented in the fall, honors Mexican writer and pioneering
feminist Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz with photography and painting exhibits, music
and theater performances, and poetry readings by Latino women.
The museum is very family oriented, offering a deluge of educational work-
shops for kids and parents. It also has a splendid gift shop, and it stages a holi-
day market, featuring items from Mexico, on the first weekend in December.
Allow 1 hour.
1852 W. 19th St. (a few blocks west of Ashland Ave.).
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312/738-1503.
www.mfacmchicago.org. Free
admission. Tues-Sun 10am-5pm. Bus: 9. Subway/El: Blue Line to 18th St.
National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
This museum houses
one of the most stirring art collections anywhere—and the only one of its kind
in the world—telling the story of the men who fought in Vietnam. Since the
war, many of the veterans made art as personal therapy, never expecting to show
it to anyone; but in 1981, a small group of them began showing their works
together in Chicago and in touring exhibitions. The collection has grown to
more than 700 paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures from all over
the country and other countries, including Vietnam. Titles such as
We Regret to
Inform You, Blood Spots on a Rice Paddy,
and
The Wound
should give you an idea
of the power of the images in this unique legacy to the war. Housed in a former
warehouse in the Prairie Avenue district south of the Loop, the museum is mod-
ern and well organized. An installation suspended from the ceiling,
Above &
Beyond
, comprises more than 58,000 dog tags with the names of the men
and women who died in the war—it creates an emotional effect similar to that
of the Wall in Washington, D.C. The complex also houses a small theater, a cafe
open for breakfast and lunch, a gift shop, and an outdoor plaza with a flagpole
Kids
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