Richard H. Driehaus Museum

We would like to congratulate Sunny Fischer, the Board Chair of the National Public Housing Museum, on the official opening of the NPHM. With it, the stories of public housing residents have found a home, and Sunny Fischer's legacy as a champion of architecture, historic preservation, and empathy is further enshrined.   Seeing Fischer at the mic on a blustery Chicago spring day, we cheered. She is also a Driehaus Museum Board member and past gala honoree, and we have had a front seat to her tireless advocacy for the people and institutions that make Chicago a better place.     Go, Sunny! (Photograph credits; Esther Yoon-Ji Kang/WBEZ and Jeremy Lawson)

We are proud to announce the first of three evening-length Chicago Symphony Orchestra chamber concerts that will be specially curated to reflect the themes of our 2025 exhibitions   The inaugural program on April 8 features three works in celebration of A Tale of Today: Materialities with a brief introduction to the exhibition by its guest curator, Dr. Giovanni Aloi. The partnership comes on the heels of the restoration and reopening of the Murphy Auditorium as part of our campus in 2024. Originally constructed between 1923 and 1926, the recent renovation has transformed the Murphy Auditorium into a world-class performance space. This concert series is generously sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation. Driehaus Museum Executive Director Lisa Key stated, "With this announcement, we celebrate the union of two Chicago institutions for the benefit of our community. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is ideally suited for the Murphy Auditorium, now an integral part of the Museum’s campus, and the Murphy Auditorium’s opulent and intimate environment is a special place to showcase the CSO’s prodigious talents. By connecting music to our exhibitions, this program series will offer a unique opportunity to broaden our perspectives through the dialogue between music and art." "This partnership with the Driehaus Museum offers a unique opportunity for the CSO to explore the profound connections between visual art and music,” said Cristina Rocca, Vice President of Artistic Administration. “We've curated programs that resonate with the themes of the Museum's exhibitions. The intimate setting of the Murphy Auditorium provides a space where these dialogues can flourish, offering audiences an immersive and deeply moving artistic experience." UPCOMING PROGRAM: CSO Chamber Music: A Tale of Today: Materialities Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 6:30-8:30PM Tickets $50 ($25 student) In celebration of A Tale of Today: Materialities, musicians from CSO perform Phillip Glass’s Quartet Satz, a contemporary and unique string quartet that was composed for the Kronos Quartet. The program continues with Beethoven’s Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola, and concludes with George Chadwick’s String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor. Tickets are available at https://lnkd.in/gsgb_6yf.

📣 Exhibition Announcement! 📣 Opening Friday, May 16! Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature explores Scottish artist Rory McEwen's trailblazing career and influence on contemporary botanical art. Featuring over 100 works, including sculptures and manuscripts, the exhibition showcases McEwen’s unique approach to 20th century modernism, portraying flowers, leaves, and vegetables as individual subjects worthy of their own portraits. Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature is generously supported by the Driehaus Trust Company, LLC., the Kovler Family Foundation, and Barbi and Tom Donnelley. Additional support provided by Friends of Rory McEwen. The exhibition is curated by Ruth L. A. Stiff, Curator of International Exhibitions, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and accompanied by a full-color catalogue produced by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. It is presented in association with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Virginia) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) with tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Credits: 1. Tulip ‘Helen Josephine’, 1975, Rory McEwen (Scottish, 193 2-1982). Watercolor on vellum © The Estate of Rory McEwen 2. Tulip ‘Columbine’, 1974, Rory McEwen (Scottish, 1932 -1982) Watercolor on vellum, © The Estate of Rory McEwen 3. Rose ‘William Lobb’, 1976-78, Rory McEwen (Scottish, 1932-1982) Watercolor on vellum. Courtesy of Lord and Lady Hesketh © The Estate of Rory McEwen

📣 Join us Saturday, March 1 for our Community Day!📣 🌟 Free Admission to the Museum all day 🌟 Visit A Tale of Today: Materialities exhibition 🌟 From 1-3 pm, artists from the exhibition and curator Dr. Giovanni Aloi will be onsite A Tale of Today: Materialities is part of @Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities. A Tale of Today: Materialities programming is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

How can artists help us see and understand our historic surroundings differently and provide new, contemporary perspectives on the past? To answer that question, we held an open call to invite artists to participate in our exhibition, A Tale of Today: Materialities, now open through Sunday, April 27. With guest curator, Dr. Giovanni Aloi, a group of fourteen artists with midwestern roots have created, adapted, and restaged artworks in response to the Driehaus Museum's Nickerson Mansion, bringing to light compelling and often forgotten histories. The artists: Rebecca Beachy, Jonas N.T. Becker, Olivia Block, Barbara Cooper, Richard Hunt, Industry of the Ordinary (Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson) Beth Lipman, Luftwerk (Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero), Dakota Mace, Bobbi Meier, Laleh Motlagh, Ebony G. Patterson, Jefferson Pinder, and Edra Soto. Opening night featured Lisa Key and Dr. Aloi in conversation. Thank you to everyone who helped make the exhibition's opening a success! Download our mobile guide on Bloomberg Connects to enhance your visit. Photography by @bob. Robert Heishman and Robert Salazar.

A preview of what's ahead at the Driehaus Museum: ✔️ Exhibition opening February 7: A Tale of Today: Materialities with artists Rebecca Beachy, Jonas N.T. Becker, Olivia Block, Barbara Cooper, Richard Hunt, Industry of the Ordinary, Beth Lipman, Luftwerk, Dakota Mace, Bobbi Meier, Laleh Motlagh, Ebony G. Patterson, Jefferson Pinder, and Edra Soto. The guest curator is Dr. Giovanni Aloi. ✔️ March 1 and April 5: Materialities Community Days, sponsored by Terra Foundation for American Art's Art Design Chicago ✔️ February 19: Third Wednesday Nights with Picosa ✔️ March 19: Third Wednesday Nights with Duo F.A.E. ✔️ April 8: Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music

This holiday season, we are filled with gratitude for our generous members, creative partners, hardworking staff, and our amazing Driehaus community. With your support, we opened our doors even wider to visitors from across the city, the country, and the world. As we reflect on a remarkable 2024, here are a few stand-out moments worth celebrating: --In June, we hosted our Grand Reopening, adding 30,000 square feet to our campus with the 1926 Murphy Auditorium. --For the very first time, we offered Free Wednesday evenings – complimentary admission from 4-7pm – and access to special performances and programs once a month during our Third Wednesday Nights. --Our Tiffany-inspired floral design exhibition Glass to Garden opened last Drie-cember and kicked off our 2024 exhibition season. --A Tale of Today: Sif Itona Westerberg marked the fifth year of our contemporary series, deepening our dialogue between our past and present. --Over the summer, Chicago Collects: Jewelry in Perspective featured 400 years of rare jewelry collected by Chicagoans. --This October, we presented new scholarship on Frank Lloyd Wright and the impact of photography on his work with Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright -- on view through January 5. We hope to see you before it closes! Thank you for being part of this pivotal year at the Driehaus Museum.

We are thrilled to announce our next exhibition, Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright, which will open Thursday, October 24. Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright is the first exhibition to present the fascinating and unexplored topic of Wright’s own early photography alongside images by the leading photographers who documented his work. Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright is organized by the Driehaus Museum. Our collaborating partner is the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Special thanks to presenting sponsor Northern Trust.   For more information: https://lnkd.in/gDWm_Qfq Photo Credit:  FLW at Taliesin, Spring Green, WI by William C. Hedrich for Hedrich-Blessing circa 1937, Chicago History Museum

Today we remember Carl Sandburg, who passed away #otd in 1967 at 89 years old. An Illinois native, Sandburg was widely renowned for his poetry depicting American life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” provided the perfect backdrop for our Murphy Auditorium ribbon cutting ceremony last month. The poem was first published in 1914 by the @poetryfoundation, our neighbors in downtown Chicago. Click to see and hear acclaimed actor and Chicagoan Harry Lennix @aampamuseum read “Chicago.” https://lnkd.in/eJGd27kh 📷: Photo of Harry Lennix by Kyle Flubacker @kyleflubacker Photo of Carl Sandburg from chroniclingillinois.org Video by Our Name is Bob @bob.mov

Friday, June 21st was quite the day for the Richard H. Driehaus Museum! We officially christened the Murphy Auditorium as part of our campus, with playful balloons, a fanfare by musicians from Chicago Symphony Orchestra, remarks from Clineé Hedspeth of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), a powerful recitation of Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" by AAMPA Museum's Harry Lennix, and remarks by Executive Director Lisa Key and Board Chair Zach Lazar. And then...the doors opened to our newly restored gracious entrance at 50 E Erie! The celebration continued that night and throughout the weekend as we opened our doors to the community with a free concert and free admission. We welcome you in with our new expanded hours, including free Wednesday nights from 5-7 pm. A special thanks to event producer Beth Kligerman and PR whizzes Katy O'Malley and Beth Silverman for all their help. Photography by Kyle Flubacker.