Summer exhibition presents rare opportunity to see Elmhurst Art Museum permanent collection

The Elmhurst Art Museum is opening its major summer exhibition “Legacies: Selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum Permanent Collection.”

Featuring dozens of artists from Salvador Dalí and Mies van der Rohe to Kay Rosen and Michiko Itatani, the group exhibition presents a rare opportunity to see the museum’s permanent collection.

The exhibition explores the relationships between artists, collectors, and museums that lead to larger, ongoing narratives connecting people across time and place.

Led by the museum’s curatorial team, the exhibit is open from May 31 through Aug. 17 at the museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave. in Elmhurst. Visit elmhurstartmuseum.org for the full schedule of exhibition-related programming and program updates.

“Museum art collections like ours would not happen without a community of collectors gifting their treasured artworks to us,” said Allison Peters Quinn, executive director and chief curator. “With ‘Legacies,’ we are telling the story of the Elmhurst Art Museum by way of the individuals such as Cleve Carney, The Broidy Family, Carol and Dick Cline, and artists including Suellen Roca and Phyllis Bramson, for example, who chose to put their artwork in our care so that it could bring joy to others for decades to come. Also, what does a collection say about the collector? We hope to broaden the conversation of collecting to think about how and why we all are attracted to collecting objects.”

A regional center of 20th-century American Art and Midcentury Design, the museum collection began in the 1990s and now includes approximately 1,000 works drawn from over 200 collections or donors, with a focus on modern and contemporary art works by Midwestern artists, architects, and designers that have exhibited at the museum, and furniture design items related to McCormick House.

The exhibition will feature micro installations of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from over a dozen collections donated to the museum, and includes local, regional, national, and international artists.

“Legacies: Selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum Permanent Collection” broadly considers the nature of collecting and how and why selections on view were collected by certain families, artists, and individuals. Accompanying the exhibition will be a lively program of music, film, talks, and tours to address collecting practices and access to collections, while inspiring people to build collections of their own.

Summer visitors are also invited to see “Crossings,” a solo exhibition of acclaimed Chicago-based artist Bernard Williams traversing the Museum’s campus. It includes several outdoor vehicle sculptures in Wilder Park, an airplane sculpture inside the Museum’s Hostetler Gallery, and large paintings in the McCormick House. CROSSINGS is curated by Peters Quinn and will also be on view through Aug. 17.

Related programs

• Celebrate the openings of the two summer exhibitions, “Legacies” and “Crossings,” with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 30. RSVP required. Cost is $28.

• “Create With Us: Sculptures with Artist Bernard Williams” will be 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 7. Included with museum admission. Chicago artist Bernard Williams presents an artist talk and art-making activity. Williams’s large-scale sculptures and paintings are featured in the museum’s summer exhibitions installed in Wilder Park and across the galleries and McCormick House. Williams will discuss his varied art practice and themes concerning Black farmers and cowboys, the life of Bessie Coleman, and car sculptures. He will then lead participants in a workshop to create small cardboard sculptures of their own.

• “Soundbites: An Evening of Music” will be 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Elmhurst Art Museum presents an evening of art and music. Groups of local musicians will perform in a variety of styles and genres throughout the Museum’s campus. Inspired by the concept of a progressive dinner, guests will move freely through the museum’s galleries and art studios to listen to “collections” of live music at their own pace. Cost is $50.

• Film screening: “A Collection of Short Films from the Chicago Film Archives Media Mixer Series” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 24. Elmhurst Art Museum, in partnership with the Chicago Film Archives, presents an evening screening of selected short films from the Chicago Film Archives Media Mixers series. This project pairs visual and sound artists who collaborate to make new video work using archival footage from the CFA collection. The evening includes light bites, beverages, and an opportunity to view the summer exhibitions.

The museum is open Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 5 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular admission prices are $18 for ages 18 or older, $15 for seniors, $10 for students, and $5 for children. For information, call (630) 834-0202 or visit elmhurstartmuseum.org.