Intuit's new exterior, with a vinyl building wrap by Bob Faust

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

Last week, after being closed for 20 months, Intuit Art Museum, formerly the Intuit Center for Outsider Art, reopened after an extensive renovation, both inside and out. Now encompassing three floors over 18,000 square feet, among the dramatically enhanced spaces that will welcome Intuit visitors are four exhibition galleries; a dedicated education and art-making studio; a flexible community gathering space to host performances, lectures and activities for visitors; a revamped gift store featuring an array of unique, fun and artist-made products; and a reimagined Henry Darger Room and interpretive exhibition, showcasing the art and life of the iconic Chicago artist over the span of two floors. Intuit’s staff is especially proud of the physical upgrades to accommodate all guests, including a new passenger elevator, interior staircases, and an accessible and welcoming entryway. 

The Henry Darger Room

Founded in 1991 as a nonprofit, Intuit is a premier museum of self-taught art. Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. 

At the press gathering in front of a packed room – named the Cleo (after one of Intuit's biggest supporters, Cleo Wilson) – Intuit's Executive Director Debra Kerr repeated the old, very long name (Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art) seemingly one last time in order to officially usher in a new day for the creative organization in its refreshed West Town home. Kerr was ecstatic to laud the new identity in the spirit of welcoming not just artists but the many Chicagoans and visitors to the city who are not familiar with Intuit's mission of recognizing artists who are outside of the mainstream and who did not, or could not, go to art school often, because of barriers–geographic or societal or other.

Sculptures by Dr. Charles Smith

Because of Intuit, Chicago is recognized worldwide as one of first places to represent these artists. Now, following a $5 million business development grant from the City of Chicago, Kerr and the Intuit team were able to realize a dream to have more exhibition space as well as educational classrooms and to make their 100 year old building accessible.

27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. credited Intuit with paving the way for the community growth that has happened around West Town over the decades. "Intuit has been here a long time," he said. "There used to be Cabrini Green here, gas fires and vacant properties. Intuit had the foresight, like many art spaces, to go where others hadn’t. Artists make a city vibrant and that brings diversity to the neighborhoods."

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A work by Charles Warner from Catalyst, looking out into West Town

Intuit's first exhibition in the new space is installed throughout the second floor, which overlooks the busy West Town intersection of Chicago, Ogden and Milwaukee Avenues. The groundbreaking Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago is the first major exhibition to focus on the importance of immigration and migration in the genre of self-taught art. Catalyst explores the contributions of artists who came to and continue to enrich the culture of Chicago, a city with a significant and ongoing history of migration and immigration. 

Permanently on view is Henry Darger: The Room Revealed, which celebrates the legacy of the noted Chicago artist through exhibition of his artworks, source materials and evocation of his apartment at 851 Webster Avenue in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, which doubled as his home and studio for more than 40 years. Darger's images are animated in the windows of the apartment space and a wall with digital representations of the ephemera and papers he saved gives viewers a feel of what the artist's creative environment was like.

A work by Lee Godie

Highlights from the IAM collection are also now on view in in the first-ever gallery devoted to continually exhibiting the Museum’s collection. The exhibition acknowledges significant work made by Chicago-based artists such as William Dawson, Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Roman Villarreal, Wesley Willis and Joseph Yoakum.

Intuit may have been closed for over a year and a half, but this reopening means that the public will enjoy the museum and its unique mission for many years to come.

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Intuit Art Museum

756 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Chicago, IL 60642

Hours

Wed-Sun: 11 am–6pm

Third Thursdays: 11 am–8 pm

Admission is $15, or free for members, those 24 and younger, and those unable to pay.