Art Institute of Chicago

History

Chicago Academy of Design

In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as the Royal Academy, with Academians and Associate Academians. The Academy's charter was granted in March 1867.

Related Topics:
1866 - Royal Academy - 1867

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Classes started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $10 per month. The Academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five storey stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870.

Related Topics:
1868 - 1870

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However, the Great Chicago Fire the following year destroyed the building, along with a great deal of the rest of Chicago, and threw the Academy into debt.

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Chicago Academy of Fine Arts

Attempts to continue in spite of the loss, using rented facilities, failed. By 1878, the Academy was $10,000 in debt.

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Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before finally abandoning it in 1879 to found a new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction.

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1879 - Chicago Academy of Fine Arts

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Art Institute of Chicago

In 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its named to the current Art Institute of Chicago. The same year, they purchased a lot on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Avenue for $45,000. The property's building was leased, and a new building was constructed behind it, to house the school's facilities.

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1882 - Michigan Avenue

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With the announcement of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the Institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. The construction costs were paid by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the Institute was allowed to move into their new building.

Related Topics:
World's Columbian Exposition - 1892 - 93

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Between 1959 and 1970, the Institute was a key site in the battle to gain art & documentary photography a place in galleries, under curator Hugh Edwards and his assistants.

Related Topics:
1959 - 1970 - Hugh Edwards

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