Seeing the World through Art

Chicago Community Visitors

Martin H. Nesbitt discusses the role of contemporary art museums.

To me, one dimension of contemporary art, sort of beyond the aesthetic dimension, is this notion of listening to, through art, what's happening in the world. How people are feeling. How they are expressing themselves. How communities are evolving. What are the issues in those communities. And I think for that reason, a museum of contemporary art is very important to any city as the members of that city figure out what's going on in the rest of the world, what are some nuanced perspectives on the world in which we live, and how has that manifest itself in contemporary art. So I think a very important institution, and—I think the MCA has continued to grow into being sort of a centerpiece for that sort of cultural exploration. And that's a very important role for an institution to play.

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