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December 29, 2011
By Steve Johnson
Chicago Tribune
December 29, 2011
The year’s biggest news in Chicago museum exhibits (non-visual-arts category) was by the lakefront, where the Adler Planetarium unveiled the long-planned high-tech makeover of its central domed theater, turning the old semi-sphere into a kind of ultimate man cave — and also, we’ll grant you, a pretty nice spot for showing visitors what the universe looks like. Meanwhile, the nearby Field Museum added “Restoring Earth,” its first major permanent exhibit (on a subject not previously covered at the museum) in more than a decade.
It remains a recessionary period — meaning institutions, generally, are leaning more on their own collections than on the big, expensive traveling shows — but these were some of 2011′s highlights: — Steve Johnson
Preview, ‘In Search of Home,’ National Hellenic Museum
Opened to the public in a new building in December, this shiny new addition to Greektown and to the city’s museum community made a wonderful opportunity out of the fact that its main exhibition, subtitled “The Greek Journey From Myth to Modern Day,” is not yet ready as the museum continues to raise money. Instead, visitors get a behind-the-curtains look at the making of a museum display, with curators’ notes, designers’ visual inspirations and samples of the information to be presented when the exhibit is done. The result proves fascinating, both about the stated subject matter and about the broader subject of putting artifacts and knowledge before the public. The preview is scheduled to be up until the main exhibit opens, scheduled for next summer.
