One of Chicago’s most impressive qualities is undeniably its collection of world-class museums. From art exhibits in Chicago featuring dazzling galleries to history museums in Chicago that allow you to reflect, a host of new and permanent exhibits are taking place in Chicago, and we’ve rounded up the best exhibitions to see now.
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, established in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Some of the artworks you’ll come across include A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, a Self-Portrait, American Gothic, and many more. The Art Institute of Chicago Building in Grant Park. These are the current art exhibits in Chicago:
Chicago-born architect Germane Barnes investigates the relationship between identity and the built environment. He utilizes research, design, and activism to uncover architecture’s social and political influence and explore Black self-determination’s spatial histories and futures.
🗓️ Open until January 2025.
🎟️ Exhibition is free with museum admission
Jitish Kallat: Public Message 3
The art exhibit in Chicago showcases two significant historical events that are 108 years apart: the First World’s Parliament of Religions, which began on September 11, 1893, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Kallat’s work is based on a speech given by Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions. Vivekananda’s words are displayed on the staircase risers in five alternating colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. These colors, borrowed from the US Department of Homeland Security’s advisory system after 9/11, represent terrorism threat levels—from red for severe to green for low.
🗓️ Open until September 2025
🎟️ Exhibition is free with museum admission
In a new commission for the major Pan-Africanism exhibitions at the Art Institute, British duo Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar of the Otolith Group have created a mural that examines the films directed by Senegalese filmmakers Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty from 1963 to 2003. The mural depicts the spaces, bodies, faces, forms, gestures, expressions, geometries, and geographies of the cinematic Sahel envisioned and created by Mambéty and Sembène.
🗓️ Open until March 2025
🎟️ Exhibition is free with museum admission
Nancy Holt directs the viewer’s gaze towards often ignored features of the cityscape, drawing attention to typically overlooked elements, such as vents on nearby rooftops or windows on adjacent buildings. Her installations are designed to interact with the specific location, using the Locator as a tool to highlight unexpected views within the built environment, which she identifies and marks with paint.
🗓️ Open until April 2025
🎟️ Exhibitions are free with museum admission
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Founded in 1967, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago champions the new and unexpected in contemporary art and culture through its exhibitions. These are the current art exhibits in Chicago:
The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970–2020
This international and intergenerational group exhibit in Chicago showcases the work of over 60 artists who have redefined painting through emerging technologies, innovative imaging techniques, and personal expression. The exhibit highlights the impact of computers, cameras, television, social media, and automation on the evolution of art. Titled “The Living End,” this exhibit in Chicago positions painting as a manual “technology” that has increasingly distanced itself from the immediacy of the artist’s hand over the past 50 years.
🗓️ Open until March 2025
🎟️ Exhibition is free with museum admission
Atrium Project: Do Ho Suh
Internationally renowned artist Do Ho Suh has taken over the entire second-floor lobby wall with a work that is as complex and moving as his larger practice, which often focuses on meditative explorations of belonging, identity, and home. In “Who Am We? (Multicoloured) (2000),” the artist has consolidated thousands of 1/8 inch portraits from his high school yearbook into a single space, arranged in uniform rows.
🗓️ Open until February 2025
🎟️ Exhibition is free with museum admission
The Field Museum
The Field Museum of Natural History, also known as The Field Museum, is a renowned natural history museum in Chicago located along Lake Michigan. It is considered one of the largest museums of its kind in the world.
On select Wednesdays this fall, the Field Museum will open its doors after hours for a special night-at-the-museum-like experience. On these dates, the museum will stay open for an extended 3-hour, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. After five, the Field will include discounted all-access admission to the museum’s short-term exhibits and long-time favorites, including Unseen Oceans, Sue the Dinosaur, and more.
These are the current exhibits in Chicago:
Abbott Hall of Conservation: Restoring Earth
Explore the collaborative efforts conserving rainforests in Peru, protecting the biodiversity of Madagascar, and connecting people on Chicago’s South Side with nature in the ‘Restoring Earth’ exhibit in Chicago. This exhibit offers videos, large-scale photographs, and hands-on learning tools to showcase our global conservation initiatives.”
🗓️ A permanent exhibit
🎟️ Tickets are included in general admission
Unseen Oceans
“Unseen Oceans” offers the chance to marvel at life-sized projections of rare and fascinating deep-sea creatures seldom seen by the human eye. Visitors can also explore an immersive underwater cavern, interact with a deep-sea submersible, and pilot through the ocean’s darkest corners alongside ocean creatures, all from within the Field Museum’s walls.
🗓️ Open until October 2025
🎟️ Requires discovery or all-access pass.
Chicago’s Legacy Hula
Discover the untold history of four Kumu Hula (master teachers of Hawaiian Hula) who have preserved and protected Hula as a way of life. Hear directly from Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) as they share their history and learn how their community thrives in Chicago and beyond. If you’re interested in the Legacy Hula, this is one of the best exhibits in Chicago.
🗓️ Open until March 2025
🎟️ Tickets are included in general admission
Audubon’s Birds of America
Experience Audubon’s stunning, life-size bird illustrations at the Audubon’s Birds of America exhibit in Chicago. Art and science come together in this three-foot-tall book, one of the rarest in the world. Discover the life of John James Audubon and explore the 12-year journey of creating these printmaking masterpieces.
🗓️ Open until January 2026
🎟️ Tickets are included in general admission
Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
Griffin MSI, one of the world’s largest science museums, has a rich history and a focus on the future of science and science education. These are the current exhibits in Chicago:
007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond at the Museum of Science + Industry
007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is the first official exhibit in Chicago focusing on the science and technology behind the world’s longest-running movie franchise.
The exhibition features artifacts such as a prototype jetpack from Thunderball and the modern Gravity Industries Jet Suit. It also offers immersive activities that allow guests to design the perfect spy vehicle and experience what it’s like to (safely) dangle from a steel beam like 007 himself.
🗓️ Open until Spring 2025
🎟️ Requires an additional exhibition ticket
Notes to Neurons
Experience the groundbreaking Notes to Neurons exhibition at the newly launched Griffin Studio. This multimedia journey utilizes cutting-edge technology, including immersive audio and gesture recognition, to explore music’s profound impact on our lives and its ability to foster connections.
Visitors will actively engage with interactive installations, discovering the intricate relationship between musical notes and our neural responses. This Chicago exhibition offers a unique blend of art, science, and technology, making it a must-visit attraction for music enthusiasts and curious minds alike.
🗓️ Ongoing exhibit with free timed entry throughout the day
🎟️ Requires an additional exhibition ticket
The National Hellenic Museum
The National Hellenic Museum is the second-oldest American institution dedicated to displaying and celebrating the cultural contributions of Greeks and Greek-Americans. These are the current exhibits:
Reaching for the American Dream: The Greek Story in America
Experience the rich tapestry of Greek American history at the National Hellenic Museum’s refreshed core exhibit. “Reaching for the American Dream: The Greek Story in America” offers a compelling journey through Greek immigration, showcasing a wealth of objects, photographs, and personal narratives. This exhibit traces the path of Greek immigrants and highlights their significant contributions to the American mosaic. Visitors will gain insights into Greek Americans’ challenges and successes while exploring how they’ve maintained their cultural identity.
🗓️ Ongoing exhibit through 2025
🎟️ Adults $10, Children $7 (3-12 years), Members and Children under three years free
Chicago History Museum
A major museum and research center for Chicago and U.S. history, the Chicago History Museum aims to be a hub for education, inspiration, and civic involvement. It offers engaging exhibitions, tours, publications, and special events. These are the current exhibits in Chicago in 2025:
City on Fire: Chicago 1871
City on Fire: Chicago 1871 is a long-standing exhibition at the Chicago History Museum, designed for families to learn, explore, and discover the impact of the Great Chicago Fire on the city and its residents.
This family-friendly exhibition features over 100 artifacts, interactive and multimedia elements, and personal stories from survivors. It provides insight into the events and conditions before, during, and after the fire, drawing striking comparisons to today’s social climate. If you haven’t already, it’s a must-see experience in 2025.
🗓️Open now through January 26, 2025
🎟️ All exhibitions are included in general admission, which is $19 for adults, $17 for seniors & students 13-22, and free for kids under 12.
Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s
In the 1960s and 70s, Chicago activists utilized design to create powerful slogans, symbols, and imagery that amplified their visions for social change.
The exhibition “Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s” features over 100 posters, flyers, signs, buttons, newspapers, magazines, and books from that era. These works often express radical ideas about race, war, gender equality, and sexuality, challenging the mainstream culture of the time.
🗓️Open now
🎟️ All exhibitions are included in general admission, which is $19 for adults, $17 for seniors & students 13-22, and free for kids under 12.