The Art Institute of Chicago has received a $75 million donation for a new building to showcase modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The funds — which amount to the single largest naming gift the museum has ever received — come from longtime art collectors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The new building, which will bear their name, will be within the museum’s existing downtown campus, although the exact location and project timeline have not been announced.
“We have a hard stop on five sides: Columbus, Monroe, Michigan and Jackson, as well as a height restriction. So we really are a profoundly finite site,” Art Institute President James Rondeau said. “There are, I think, some opportunities to repurpose underused spaces and then also relocate certain aspects of the collections to create the potential for this construction.”
Fleischman and Lougheed live in Miami but both have Midwest roots, according to the museum. Fleischman is a native of suburban Highland Park and has been an Art Institute trustee for about 15 years. He has made other major contributions to art museums, including endowing a curatorship at The Met in New York.
“Lin and I are excited about naming a new building that will create additional space for visitors to see more of the collection than they have ever been able to see before, and for the museum to tell a more complete story of modern and contemporary art,” Fleischman said in a statement. “Touring the collections on view and in storage I came to believe that more of the museum‘s extraordinary collection needed to be available to visitors and presented in world-class architecture.”
Dozens line up at the Art Institute of Chicago to visit The Obama Portraits, featuring Kehinde Wiley’s painting of former President Barack Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrayal of former First Lady Michelle Obama, on the first day the official portraits go on display in 2021.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times
The Modern Wing of the Art Institute, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, opened in 2009 to house modern and contemporary art and sculpture, photography and architecture and design. That was the largest expansion of the museum in history.
Rondeau said 19th and 20th century modern art is a key part of the museum’s DNA.
“And there are really significant swaths of the modern collection not on view,” Rondeau said. “So we aim to create both more space for modern — and then there’ll be a kind of collateral lift to create more space for contemporary, we hope, in the existing buildings.”
In recent years, the museum has been working with the Barcelona architecture firm Barozzi Veiga to reimagine its downtown campus, improve facilities and provide more access to its collection, Rondeau said.
“I know the word transformative is overused, but we’ve been working for many years on this vision, and thanks to Aaron and Lin, I think we can say that we’ll be in a position where that vision will become a reality,” Rondeau said.
The Art Institute’s Modern Wing opened in 2009.
Richard A. Chapman/Chicago Sun-Times
The new building will be designed to have views of Millennium Park, downtown and the lake, the museum said in a release.
“It’s exciting to be part of Barozzi Veiga’s long-term plan for the Art Institute,” Lougheed said in a statement. “The future building plans will add to Chicago’s reputation as the center of innovative architecture.”
Earlier this year, the Art Institute announced two $25 million donations from Chicago-area based groups to support campus improvements. The John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Family Foundation gave in support of the Nichols Family Skyline Garden and other visitor-centered spaces. The Bucksbaum family gifted funds for a namesake photography center.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.