An Invitation to Participate

Accessibility Chicago Community Exhibitions

Art in outdoor spaces extends an invitation to passersby to engage with the work, whether or not they intend to enter the museum.

Another aspect of the museum that I think is really important is that it also has a way in which it can sort of take a position work outside the museum. Like that plaza out front is a useful place where you—where the museum can put things out in installation, where people who are simply just passing by, who don’t have any intention of going in the museum, also get a chance to experience something that happens inside. So I think as an invitation to participate in or experience something that happens in the art world, that’s a really important aspect of what the museum does.

it’s a perfect complement to what happens in Millennium Park. It’s the next best thing to having a sculpture garden in a sculpture park is having a plaza that you can put things out in front of the museum on—and then having those two platforms where they also put sculpture. Those things where you bring the inside of the museum outside. I think those things are really important.

21Minus, May 18, 2013. Photo © MCA Chicago.

21Minus, May 18, 2013. Photo © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Garofalo Architects: Between the Museum and the City, MCA Chicago, May 3–Oct 14, 2003. Photo © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Garofalo Architects: Between the Museum and the City, MCA Chicago, May 3–Oct 14, 2003. Photo © MCA Chicago.

SOAR Farmers' Market. Photo © MCA Chicago.

SOAR Farmers’ Market. Photo © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Plaza Project: Mark Handforth, MCA Chicago, Jul 8–Oct 10, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Plaza Project: Mark Handforth, MCA Chicago, Jul 8–Oct 10, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, MCA Chicago Plaza Project
: Alexandre da Cunha, MCA Chicago, Jul 18, 2015–Jul 24, 2016. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, MCA Chicago Plaza Project
: Alexandre da Cunha, MCA Chicago, Jul 18, 2015–Jul 24, 2016. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, MCA Chicago Plaza Project
: Alexandre da Cunha, MCA Chicago, Jul 18, 2015–Jul 24, 2016. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, MCA Chicago Plaza Project
: Alexandre da Cunha, MCA Chicago, Jul 18, 2015–Jul 24, 2016. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

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