Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, or MCA, is at 220 E Chicago Ave in the Gold Coast, near Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States and focuses on art from 1945 to the present. The building, designed by Josef Paul Kleihues, opened in 1996 and features a stone-clad exterior, a large atrium and a sculpture garden with views toward the lake and downtown. Galleries host rotating exhibitions of painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance and design, along with selections from the permanent collection that cover artists such as Magritte, Warhol and Jeff Koons, plus many Chicago-based artists. The museum also runs talks, performances and film programs. A museum cafe and shop are on site. Most visitors spend one and a half to two hours, depending on how many special exhibitions are on view. The galleries are generally not crowded, and the busiest times are weekend afternoons and free-admission evenings. Tuesday evenings, when the museum stays open until 9:00PM, are popular with locals. The museum is closed on Mondays, and hours can change, so checking mcachicago.org is advisable. Photographers will find the sculpture garden and its view of the Gold Coast skyline to be a good vantage point. The museum is a short walk from the Red Line station at Chicago, about seven blocks east along Chicago Avenue, and is near Oak Street Beach and the Magnificent Mile.