History
In 1964, a group of collectors, art dealers, artists, art critics, and architects united with a shared belief that the city of Chicago deserved a contemporary art museum dedicated to exploring the new. The institution's founders originally conceived of the museum as a Kunsthalle, or a noncollecting “art hall” that organized and hosted temporary exhibitions of new and experimental artists.
—Mary Richardson, Library Director
Beginnings
Since the MCA opened its doors in 1967, in a small building at 237 East Ontario Street (the former Playboy headquarters), we have featured the work of emerging artists, many of whom would go on to influential careers. Under the direction of curator and art historian Jan van der Marck, the founders and staff sought to nurture experimentation and “collaboration among practitioners of today's many-faceted art expressions” and to amplify the innovative exhibitions with “lectures, symposia, roundtable discussions, films and musical performances.” From day one (literally) we took an interdisciplinary approach, featuring composer John Cage and Fluxus artists Alison Knowles and Dick Higgins asking, “What Did You Bring?” in the first of many Happenings and avant-garde performances that the museum would present. Dan Flavin's neon tubes lit up the museum's original gallery in his first solo show.
As we became more established, programs also brought a social awareness and engagement to the breadth of experimental activities. The museum's curators organized Violence! In Recent American Art
1970s
The following year, we hosted solo exhibitions of Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, kicking off a decade during which we solidified our unique blend of exhibitions and programming and transitioned from a Kunsthalle to a collecting museum. Exhibitions included compelling locally inspired shows like Murals for the People
With a donation from the artist Marisol in 1968, the Board formally established our permanent collection in 1974, which eventually spurred the need for a larger space that could display the newest art as well as the burgeoning collection. We marked our 10th anniversary by purchasing an adjacent three-story townhouse to facilitate an expansion. In 1978, we took advantage of the renovation period by inviting Gordon Matta-Clark to create a temporary intervention for which he sawed through the walls, floors, and roof of the townhouse, exposing the inside of the building to the elements and creating extraordinary and otherwise impossible views of the interior and the world around it.
1980s—1990s
By the 1980s and early 1990s, we became further established as an important platform for experimental contemporary art. The museum hosted Jeff Koons’s first solo museum show. We introduced audiences to artists like Martin Puryear
Due to our continued growth, we began to feel the need for a new home, and in 1990, we signed a 99-year lease on the site of the Illinois National Guard's Chicago Avenue Armory. Again, we recognized a construction project as an opportunity for artistic inquiry and in 1992 staged a site-specific exhibition, Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory in the vacant building before its demolition. In 1996, a building designed by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues opened on the summer solstice, welcoming more than 25,000 visitors during a 24-hour public preview. Although we had always blurred the lines between art and performance, we formally established the Performance department, later to be called MCA Stage, that same year. The new site and programming quickly proved successful. After one year of operations in our new home, attendance, revenues, and membership quadrupled. We finished the 1990s with exhibitions such Art in Chicago, 1945–1995, a landmark survey of Chicago artists and artistic traditions, as well as solo shows featuring Cindy Sherman (1998), Chuck Close (1998), Sarah Sze (1999), and Charles Ray
2000s
In the new millennium, we have continued to support the local arts scene while also presenting globally renowned contemporary art and performance. The 12 x 12 series featured work by a different promising Chicago artist each month, giving audiences early looks at artists like Rashid Johnson
In 2011, under the leadership of Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn and James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling, we reimagined and restructured the museum's approach to exhibitions, dedicating specific gallery spaces to thematic permanent collection shows, ascendant artist solo shows, and three new exhibition series: MCA DNA, Chicago Works, and MCA Chicago Plaza Project. While MCA DNA explores the museum's history and iconic works from the collection, Chicago Works highlights the work of Chicago area artists who are somewhat more established but may not be widely recognized such as Lilli Carré
As we move beyond our first 50 years, we now possess a substantive history of our own. Expanding on that past, we continue to welcome the public to explore and share in today's most experimental and intriguing contemporary art and performance.