There’s plenty to see this fall at Chicago area museums

If you haven’t visited a museum in a while, it’s time you returned.

There’s a lot happening this fall on the cultural scene, including new, permanent exhibitions at the Adler Planetarium and the John G. Shedd Aquarium.

The Smart Museum of Art reopens after a three-month hiatus to celebrate its 50th anniversary, and the Art Institute of Chicago hosts the first major exhibition examining the cultural impact of Pan-Africanism. And don’t forget about the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, which will introduce to the public the archaeopteryx, a rare fossil of a prehistoric bird that lived 150 million years ago. Representatives describe it as the museum’s most significant fossil acquisition since Sue, the T. rex.

In the suburbs, the Elmhurst Art Museum celebrates Aurora muralist Rafael Blanco and showcases works from its permanent collection. In Skokie, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center examines the impact on Japanese American artists of the executive order interning more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent during the 1940s.

Here’s a list of upcoming exhibitions.

Suburban museums

• “Evel Knievel Tribute Tour,” Aug. 23-25 at the Volo Auto Museum, 27582 Volo Village Road, Volo. The Volo Museum is one of the exclusive stops of this nationwide tour showcasing some of the stunt vehicles used and the gear worn by daredevil Evel Knievel and his son, Robbie Knievel, as well as items from the Knievel family’s personal collection. (815) 390-4853 or volocars.com.

• “Magic and Imaginary Realms: Selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum,” Sept. 7 through Jan. 5, 2025, at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst. Peter Max, Nikki Renee Anderson and Hollis Sigler are among the artists the museum will highlight during this exhibition focusing on works rooted in “visions of the strange and magical.”

Additionally, the museum presents “Rafael Blanco: Reflecting on a Decade of Public Art,” the first solo museum of Aurora-based muralist Rafael Blanco, co-creator of Elmhurst’s own “Be Bold. Be Elmhurst” mural. It also runs Sept. 7 through Jan. 5, 2025. (630) 834-0202 or elmhurstartmuseum.org.

• “Grid Luck,” through Oct. 6 at The Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. This exhibition showcases works by Chicago-based artist Alberto Aguilar, who uses materials including tools, furniture and existing items as inspiration for his site-specific installations. (630) 942-4000 or theccma.org.

• “Resilience: A Sensei Sense of Legacy,” Dec. 15 through June 1, 2025, at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie. Inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1942 Executive Order 9066 forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps, the exhibition examines the impact of that order on subsequent generations, as expressed by eight artists who are Sansei, or third generation Japanese Americans. (847) 967-4800 or ilholocaustmuseum.org.

• “Of the Earth,” through March 25, 2025, at the Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle. This large-scale sculpture exhibition by Polish American artist Olga Ziemska includes five works created from naturally downed, reclaimed tree branches and other natural materials gathered from throughout the arboretum. (630) 968-0074 or mortonarb.org.

Chicago museums

• “Other Worlds,” ongoing at The Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. This new, permanent, interactive exhibition examines exoplanets, both familiar and extreme, including gas giants, ice giants, super Earths, rocky worlds and others. Additionally, visitors can create and manipulate different types of planetary systems in the Stellar Playground and check out models of the Mars rovers, Mars Ingenuity helicopter, and Adler’s own Aquarius Project sled, which helped scientists find meteorites in Lake Michigan. See adlerplanetarium.org.

• “Dawit L. Petros: Prospetto a Mare,” Aug. 30 through Dec. 20 at The Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. This exhibition is the latest chapter in Petros’ examination of the impact of Italian colonialism on visual art in Africa, Europe and North America, including Chicago. (312) 663-5554 or mocp.org.

• “Wonder of Water” and “Amazon Rising” open this fall at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, 1200 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Shedd’s new “Wonder of Water” gallery consists of towering saltwater and freshwater habitats that offer visitors a glimpse of aquatic life and showcase aquatic diversity. “Amazon Rising” features new homes for three, 6-foot-long arapaima (a large predatory, freshwater fish) and a home for Beatrix, an 11 foot-long green anaconda, considered one of the largest snakes in the world. Visitors will also learn how these animals have adapted to living in a region that has experienced some of the most dramatic seasonal changes in the world. (312) 939-2438 or sheddaquarium.org.

• “Día de Muertos, Where the Past Is Present,” Sept. 20 through Dec. 8 at The National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Chicago. The museum’s 38th annual Day of the Dead exhibition includes contemporary works and traditional Día de Muertos art installations. See nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org.

• “The 50th: An Anniversary Exhibition,” Sept. 24 through March 2, 2025, at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago. To mark its reopening, the museum will showcase more than 100 works (paintings, works on paper and sculpture) from its collection as part of an exhibition that examines the Smart Museum’s history and its exhibitions. (773) 702-0200 or smartmuseum.uchicago.edu.

• “The Chicago Archaeopteryx,” opens Sept. 27 at The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. The museum’s new 430-square-foot, immersive installation showcases the rare archaeopteryx fossil, one of the earliest known dinosaurs that also qualifies as a bird. The fossil, which is about the size of a pigeon, is one of only a dozen known specimens of the prehistoric bird, which lived about 150 million years ago. The Chicago Archaeopteryx is one of only 10 on public display. Museum representatives describe it as the most significant fossil acquisition since Sue, the T. rex. (312) 922-9410 or fieldmuseum.org.

• “Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright,” Oct. 25 through Jan. 5, 2025, at Richard H. Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie St., Chicago. This exhibition chronicles the architect’s lifelong fascination with photography and includes his photography, as well as images by the leading photographers who documented his career. See driehausmusuem.org.

• “The Living End: Painting and other Technologies, 1970-202,” Nov. 9 through April 13, 2025, at The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. More than 40 artists’ works are included in this exhibition surveying the medium of painting over the last 50 years. The artists featured have redefined painting using emerging technologies, imaging techniques and their own bodies to examine the impact of computers, cameras, television and social media on the medium. (312) 397-4010 or mcachicago.org.

• “Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica,” Dec. 15 through March 30, 2025, at The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. The first major exhibition to examine the cultural manifestations of Pan-Africanism, political and/or cultural movements advocating for solidarity among people of African descent, “Project a Black Planet” consists of more than 350 objects from the last century made by African, North and South American and European artists, including Chicago’s Kerry James Marshall and Springfield native David Hammons. The exhibition is accompanied by “Screens: A Panafrica Film Series,” featuring seven films from the 1950s to the 1970s that examine anti-colonial, independence movements and civil rights struggles in Africa. Additionally, a museum commissioned mural by the Otolith Group (Kodwo Eshun and Anjlika Sagar) titled “A Massive Concentration of Black Interscalar Energy” will be on display Sept. 26 through March 30, 2025. See artic.edu.