Culture Day

Yesterday was 'culture day' at the White House. Mr. Blogger and I took advantage of the balmy 35 degree sunny day to walk down to the Art Institute.

Did you know that every day in February is free general admission? We didn't stop in the Modern Wing this trip - I can only handle modern art once in any 12 month period...but we did see the Caravaggio exhibit and some really interesting photos from the Chicago Columbian Exhibition.

And while I enjoyed this latest trip to the Museum, I have to admit that the 20 minutes we spent waiting for it to open were almost as entertaining.

Across the street in the Railway Exchange building at Monroe & Michigan is the Chicago Model City. This exhibit, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation is pretty amazing.

A 320-square-foot model of downtown that depicts every street, building and structure in the city - it even shows the excavated hole where the Chicago Spire might some day actually be built.

The exhibit also includes some history on the building of the city's elevated train system, an exploration of the 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago and a digital visualization of the tear down and rebuilding of the city's South side. About the only thing it doesn't include is the White House. For some reason, the model stops, literally, across the street from us...


The exhibit is free and open to the public 7 days a week from 9am-6:30pm

Photos from Kate Gardiner's FLICKR stream