THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
A trip to Chicago on Lake Michigan in Illinois is not complete without a journey through Millennium and Grant parks,via the Bean and Buckingham Fountain,and it's best when you take a few hours to pause at the Art Institute,one of the city's great visual art institutions. It was founded in 1857 and is home to greats including Ray Johnson,Gordon Parks and Georgia O'Keeffe (and,until September 2022,Cezanne). Do not miss the Thorne Miniatures in the basement,a permanent collection of 68 tiny rooms designed and made to painstakingly tiny specification. Seeartic.edu
MUSEUM OF BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS
PEGGY NOTEBAERT NATURE MUSEUM
There's some seriously wide-eyed wonder at this Lincoln Park mecca to the insect. With kid-friendly explanations and interactives,the museum is the perfect meeting ground for family fun. On weekends over the summer,the butterfly atrium plays host to Saturday morning yoga,but there's outdoor trails,exhibitions (including the taxidermy-rich Wilderness Walk) and a kids nature-inspired play centre open year round. This year marks the 165th anniversary,with ongoing events throughout 2022. Seenaturemuseum.org
CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE CENTRE
Chicago is called America's architecture capital for a reason;it's home to some of the greatest and most formative architects the world has ever seen. Between the Bauhaus movement and the city's jagged skyline – forever planting Tribune Tower and Mies van der Rohe's vision on the urban landscape – Chicago knows how to do design. You can easily set aside the morning for the must-do Chicago Architecture Centre river tour,and then follow it up with a visit to the Centre's museum to further explore the history of the skyline and its future. Museum entry is discounted with a CAC river-tour ticket. Seearchitecture.org
THE FINE ARTS BUILDING