Art Design Chicago
Intuit Art Museum Set to Reopen After Expansion and Transformation. Take a Look Inside
Intuit Art Museum President and CEO Debra Kerr is pictured in the soon-to-open new space. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Since it was established in 1991, Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art served as a space for artists outside of the mainstream.
But now the Intuit Art Museum has a new name, tripled its space (from 6,000 square feet to 18,000) and re-invented itself as a true museum. The new space opens to the public on Friday and WTTW News got an early look inside and out.
“People are pretty blown away by what we did in this space,” president and CEO Debra Kerr told WTTW News, and she wasn’t exaggerating.
The building is completely transformed, and the spark for this transformation was a $5 million community development grant awarded to Intuit in 2022 as part of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Recovery Plan.
Since it was founded in 1991, Intuit has been a showcase for a diversity of self-taught artists — artists who typically work outside the mainstream and create what is sometimes called “outsider art.”
“There’s controversy with the term ‘outsider art,’” Kerr said. “Many people involved in the genre love the term, and some hate it. But our younger audiences often find the term ‘othering,’ and the explanation of it doesn’t always satisfy. Also artists don’t particularly want labels; they just want to be artists.”
Many of the artists faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to pursuing training in the arts. In other words, a big, pricey art school was not within their reach. They often created their work out of an almost compulsive drive.
The exterior of Intuit Art Museum has a fresh, funky façade by artist Bob Faust and a much more welcoming feel. What used to be a dark and mysterious entryway now features large, inviting windows. Pedestrians on Milwaukee Avenue can see inside, and first-time visitors will no longer wonder if they’re at the right place.
The exterior of the newly redesigned Intuit Art Museum has a fresh facade by artist Bob Faust. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Entering the museum, visitors have two options: bear right to see selections from the permanent collection. Bear left and get to know Henry Darger, the Chicago artist and custodian whose 15,000 illustrated pages of a wild fantasy novel brought him posthumous fame.
Downstairs, the Darger collection continues with his recreated home studio now enhanced with projections that echo his obsessive body of work.
Upstairs, in what used to be storage space, the museum fully blooms.
“When we need the space for a blockbuster,” Kerr said, “We can use this whole second floor.”
The second-floor gallery of the redesigned and expanded Intuit Art Museum in Chicago. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
The inaugural show is “Catalyst,” part of the Art Design Chicago initiative of the Terra Foundation. The exhibition showcases paintings and sculpture made by self-taught artists who immigrated or migrated to Chicago. Some are long gone; others are still creating.
The work is unusual, impressive and truly unique. At times it’s devastatingly personal, as when an artist depicts her harrowing escape from the Armenian genocide at age seven.
At Intuit Art Museum, the labels for the artwork tell deeper stories.
“We avoid curator-speak on our labels,” Kerr said. “As much as possible we’re telling the perspective of the artists’ background and impetus through either their own words or their family. So, it’s not just a curator analyzing the work from an academic point of view. It’s the artist and their community.”
They have kept a rough-hewn look as part of the backdrop to the artwork.
“We left that 150-year-old brick exposed,” Kerr said. “We’ve kept that edgy, non-traditional art museum feel while still respecting the art that’s hanging on special reinforced art-hanging walls.”
Accessibility is another new feature, including a ramp from the sidewalk, a passenger elevator and an all-gender restroom.
There’s a new learning studio with a student exhibition coming soon, and Intuit Art Museum is continuing its 30-year commitment to providing professional development for Chicago teachers — and not just art teachers.
A work by William L. Hawkins hangs at the Intuit Art Museum. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
All of this comes at a cost. Did they come in under budget?
“We’re over. Our original budget was going to be $7 million,” Kerr said. “When we got into the project we revised that to $9, and we’re coming in at $11.”
And is the museum tied to federal funds getting cut by philistines in Washington?
“Our funding base is primarily individual donations and foundations,” Kerr said. “We’ve had some great support from the NEA in the past, but we’re currently not funded by the NEA. The topic is of concern to us because initially in the 2025 budget I wanted to seek federal funding. But once himself took office, I took that all out of the budget.”
“It has been a hell of a time the last two years,” she added. “My overall vision is that this is an art museum like no other, and now we’ve made the building ready for the next 150 years.”
Complimentary admission to Intuit Art Museum, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave., will be offered throughout the Memorial Day weekend, May 23-26.
Funding for WTTW’s arts coverage as part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration highlighting the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities, is provided in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Marc Vitali is the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation Arts Correspondent.
