The Art Institute of Chicago is issuing an invitation to a series of free outdoor and indoor public events on May 31 to celebrate the unveiling of plans for the museum’s new north wing designed by Renzo Piano. Festivities begin at 8:30am and all activities, including admission to the museum, are free.
The exhibition Zero Gravity: The Art Institute, Renzo Piano, and Building for a New Century presents to the public for the first time delicate models, detailed renderings, calligraphic sketches, and illuminating plans of the new north wing created by the architects of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in a beautiful, evocative setting around the balcony in Gallery 200. Echoing Renzo Piano’s commitment to the generous use of natural light in galleries, and to light architectural inventions in urban settings, the exhibition is conceived to emphasize the lightness of the new north wing’s design, with exhibition materials illuminated from the skylight above the Allerton Building’s Woman’s Board Grand Staircase. The exhibition is both a foretaste of the building to come and a tribute to one of the world’s great living architects.
For more information, please visit www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/zerogravity.html