Family Days at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago offer age-appropriate, open-ended activities where children and their caregivers explore materials, ideas, and creative processes in contemporary art. Activities are designed to involve collaboration, encouraging families to spend time together looking, making, and thinking. Local artists design and facilitate activities and projects, all of which are inspired by the art on view in the galleries. Family Days are held on Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The remaining days of Family Day themes are:
- February 14: Double – Families can share, collaborate, and exchange at this Family Day inspired by the MCA exhibitions BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Sarah and Joseph Belknap.
- March 14: Loop – Families make, explore, and experiment with art that lingers and reverberates, inspired by the exhibition, Doris Salcedo.
- April 11: Lost and Found – Based on the exhibition Doris Salcedo, families are invited to uncover hidden secrets, discover new ideas, and find their artistic voice.
- May 9: Tinker – Families can fix, tinker, and take things apart, experimenting with new materials and ways of making.
One of the nation’s largest facilities devoted to the art of our time, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago offers exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art created since 1945. MCA Chicago 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 panoramic view of Lake Michigan.
The mission of the MCA is to be an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where the public can directly experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical, social, and cultural context of the art of our time. The Museum boldly interweaves exhibitions, performances, collections, and educational programs to excite, challenge, and illuminate our visitors and to provide insight into the creative process. The MCA aspires to engage a broad and diverse audience, create a sense of community and be a place for contemplation, stimulation, and discussion about contemporary art and culture.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, designed by architect Josef Paul Kleihues and completed in June 1996, is the first building made specifically for the MCA’s use since the institution’s founding in 1967. With almost seven times the square footage of the museum’s previous facility, the MCA building hosts a variety of programs that make use of its unique architectural features. The plaza has become a living stage for the museum’s public, with rotating installations and a seasonal farmers’ market; while the back terrace offers jazz overlooking the sculpture garden. With these opportunities to encounter art in almost every corner of the edifice, visitors from all over the globe have embraced the MCA as a vibrant and challenging forum for contemporary art and culture. Kleihues’s previous museum projects include the Museum of Prehistory in Frankfurt (1980–86), the Civic Gallery and Lütze Museum in Sindelfingen (1987–90), and the project for the Berlin Museum of Contemporary Art, an adaptive reuse of the old Hamburger Bahnhof train station (1990–96).
