Public Engagement Visit 1: Intuit Gallery

For my Public Engagement class this semester we were assigned to visit a museum, think about how the exhibits are engaging, and talk to another visitor about their engagement. I spent a Friday morning and afternoon visiting three small museums. Since it was a weekday, and wasn't a holiday, I didn't find other visitors, but I was able to engage with a neat variety of exhibits, and talk with workers at each place. I planned to visit the Polish Museum of America first, but arrived too early, so I went for a walk, grabbed a cup of coffee, and visited the beautiful St. John Cantius Cathedral on Chicago and Ogden, which has beautiful woodwork (photos to the right). I found myself right by the Intuit center, so I started there instead.

Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Located near the Chicago Blue line stop, Intuit is accessible, but unassuming from the outside. There's a large sign, but the warehouse look of the building and windowless walls and door give a secretive feel to the place. However, once I was inside, I was quickly greeted by a welcoming employee and guided into the gift shop to pay my $5 entrance fee. He asked how I had heard of the place, gave me the lay of the land, and provided a little info about the exhibits. I grabbed a few pamphlets and a sizable printout about the new exhibit and started exploring.
The new Caparena exhibit features sculptures that look like a cross between human, alien, or animal, made entirely of bottle caps and wire. The metallic look was tempered by the way they were layered to appear fluffy and rounded from a distance. They were on rows of pedestals at waist height, making them quite tall, with a few glowing lights under a couple of them. They were cool, but there wasn't much to engage with. In the back room, the walls featured a few more art pieces, some large and some small, a couple of them by the artist Henry Darger, and in the center of the room was a large bench, always a nice feature. In the back, a small exhibit featured the whole cramped one-room apartment of Darger, an acclaimed outsider artist with a passion for his work so strong that he sacrificed even a bed to make room for creative materials. This exhibit was definitely immersive, and weird, but let me wanting to see more of Darger's actual work, to see how the space influenced the art.

I will commend them for their large event space through a side door next door, their cute and nifty gift shop, their ample seating, and awesome bathroom. The bathroom was large, covered in wall art and artsy furniture, had two homey stalls, flowers, and nicely folded paper towels on the counter. I don't often review a museum's bathroom, but this one stood out and certainly influenced my sense of engagement with the space. Although the museum’s entryway and weird art may not appeal to all tastes, Intuit certainly makes the effort to make visitors feel comfortable and welcome in other ways. It seems like they do a lot of public programming, and often feature new exhibits, so I'll have to return and see the vibe and community of the space on a different day.