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At the MCA, audiences are critical to our mission. Our visitors shape the way we think about and do our work.
The questions we receive from our guests are diverse: visitors are often curious about who maintains the building or how we choose the art on display. Sometimes we are asked about the plants in the Commons or the ways that the MCA interacts with the Chicago community.
Through January 2019, individual staff members answer these questions in the space of the MCA Commons. Together we will make a better MCA.
Can’t make it to the MCA but have something you are wondering? Use #asktheMCA on social media to ask us anything about the museum.
We’ll be updating this page with your on-site and online questions and our answers.
Some of our favorite questions...
How involved is each artist in the creation of their show? Does it vary? Are local artists more involved?
The living artists we work with are often very involved in their exhibitions—especially for the Chicago Works series! It has been a thrill, for example, to work with local painter and cartoonist Jessica Campbell to conceptualize a new suite of work for her upcoming Chicago Works show in December. I like to think of curatorial work as an ongoing conversation!
–Nina Wexelblatt, Curatorial Assistant
How do I get a job in the museum?
The MCA is always looking for great people to join our team and working at the MCA has a lot of fantastic perks! You can find all our available opportunities on our employment page. If you see any positions that interest you apply online! If you have difficulty with the online application or have any questions, you can contact us at [email protected].
If you are not looking for a job, another wonderful way to get involved at the MCA is through interning or volunteering. If you are an undergraduate student, graduate student, or recent graduate, check out our internship programs. MCA internships provide valuable opportunities to learn how arts nonprofits operate. Many of our former interns go on to careers in museums and other cultural organizations. On occasion, they even join the MCA staff.
Volunteers support our programs in a range of ways, such as helping out at events, lending a hand to the Learning and Public Programs Department on Family Days, ushering for the MCA stage, or greeting visitors.
-Yolanda Davis, HR
Who writes the labels?
Label writing is a collaborative effort between the curatorial (the content expert), interpretation (the audience expert), and editorial (the storytelling expert) departments.
-Rosie May, Associate Director, Interpretation and Visitor Research
How does the MCA work with local and global organizations? Which ones?
Currently the MCA works with organizations that have ties to their local communities. For example, a dance troupe from Chicago's West Side might use the Commons as a meeting rehearsal space, or an organization that helps people understand local policy and legislature might do a program here explaining election results. We are hosting a summit of artists and administrators in the future that looks at Latin American cultural production. Stay tuned for more to come!
-Gibran Villalobos, Partnerships and Engagement Liaison
Does the museum sell souvenirs?
The museum does sell souvenirs! The MCA store is on the first and second floor of the southwest corner of the museum, to the right of the massive staircase. The store is a fun, friendly, interactive space that sells artists postcards, books, MCA branded accessories, t-shirts, and other gifts made my artists and designers from around the world. Stop by before or after your visit and say hello!
-Sarah Grosspietsch, Digital Branding and Purchasing Administrator
Can you add interactive activities?
From time to time our exhibitions and Commons artist projects have interactive elements, BUT I'd highly recommend a visit to the museum for one of our eight Family Days that we offer for free every year! Offered the second Saturday of every month October through May, Family Days are free for kids and their grown ups and feature interactive activities, workshops, performances, and more, all dreamt up and made my artists. Family Days, which run from 11am-3pm, are a great way to come experience the museum. Our next Family Days are:
Sat Jan 12, Sat Feb 9, Sat Mar 9, Sat Apr 13, Sat May 11
We can't wait to see you at one (or ALL!) of these!
-Ellen Chu, Coordinator of School, Family, and Youth Programs
Will you have a children’s exhibit like where the art hanging is made by children?
Children are the most contemporary artists! On the second Saturday of every month, we have a special Family Day, which is all about the creativity of kids. It's my job to help organize those events, and, while we haven't done it yet, I've totally thought it would be fun to do a bring-your-own-art exhibit so Family Day visitors can display their art for the day. If you've got a good idea about how to put that together, come and find me at the next Family Day–I'll be the one wearing rainbow sneakers!
-Grace Needlman, Manager of Youth and Family Programs
How many curators collaborate on each exhibition?
Great question! The number of curators working on a project varies. Currently, I (Grace Deveney, Assistant Curator) am organizing a show titled Groundings, with Associate Curator of Performance, Tara Aisha Willis. We have been supported in this project by Curatorial Assistants Jack Schneider, Laura-Paige Kyber and Anthony Williams. It opens on Nov 3rd, and the collaborative work between performance and visual art is central to the theme of the exhibition.
Even when only one curator is involved, we are constantly sharing and exchanging ideas!
Will you get a Lego Station?
Short answer: If we work with an artist who uses legos in their art, we might see a lego station here!
Long answer: When I read this question, a few more questions come to mind: What does a Lego Station invite or empower you to do? What would it mean to do that in a contemporary art museum?
To me, Legos are about the opportunity to create something new, take it apart, and do it again, often with other people. Legos are all about a shared creative process. Here at the museum, there are lots of places to look at the products if creativity—the art. What does it mean to have the opportunity to experience the process of art-making in a museum?
It might not be a Lego Station, but the artist projects and programs that happen here in the Commons are all about exploring the creative process with other people, so, in a way, that’s our version of a Lego Station.
-Grace Needlman, Manager of Youth and Family Programs
Does the MCA host Chicago specific exhibits?
We do! We have a series called Chicago Works that highlights the work of local artists. The current Chicago Works show features Mika Horibuchi, and the next exhibition in the series opens in December and highlights the work of Jessica Campbell.
Additionally, the MCA often hosts shows by Chicago artists apart from the Chicago Works series. Recent examples are Michael Rakowitz, Kenneth Josephson, and Kerry James Marshall.
-Jack Schneider, Curatorial Assistant
Can you bring back that guy who yelled out our names?
Someday we will! That performance is a work by Pierre Huyghe titled Name Announcer, and as an artwork it must be shown in the context of an exhibition. The performance is one of a number of works of this kind in the MCA collection—it exists as a set of instructions that can be activated for shows.
-Grace Deveney, Assistant Curator
Oh, MCA, first a compliment: Throughout my visit today, on each floor and in each gallery I had the supreme pleasure of watching the diverse staff members gentry guide, lead, and teach groups of students. Museum staff were kind, encouraging, respectful, and enthusiastic. Sigh. I feel so much better about the world. Thank you!
Now to the question: Is there any work currently on display about which the artist has given specific instructions NOT to take any conservation actions?? artconservation
Thank you! @dhopesmith
We do not have works in our collection that have restrictions on their care. Some artists like to do the restoration themselves since they know the material, or artists have certain conservators they prefer.
-Kayla Foster, Collections Administrative Assistant
Who waters the plants?
A private contractor comes out for our plant friends every Monday, when the museum is closed (and when a majority of building maintenance is performed). The plants are trimmed, watered, and their general health is assessed, ensuring happy, vibrant, plants to visit with our patrons throughout the week.
-Building Operations
What is your civic duty?
Today, there are fewer and fewer public spaces to talk in person, to learn from one another, and to even disagree. The MCA is a space where we can talk, share ideas, and rehearse our duties as people in a diverse society. Our duty is to provide a space for Chicagoans, (and visiting friends) to meet and share.
-Gibran Villalobos, Partnerships and Engagement Liaison
Where are all the games?
The games that were here were part of a project by Joan Giroux. It’s over now. :(
But don't worry! I thought of a great game for you to play in Enrico David, Gradations of Slow Release.
Walk around and look for a strange head or face. Draw it on the top of a piece of paper, then fold the paper over to hide everything but the bottom edge of the drawing (keep it a secret).
Pass it to a friend and repeat with a body. Then pass it again for feet. When you're done, open it up and check out the “Exquisite Corpse” you made!
-Jeremy Kreusch, co-Lead Artist, Teen Creative Agency
How did you get the idea to start the MCA?
In the 1960s, contemporary art was still very new. Many people were not familiar with it at all. Some people thought it was confusing and wondered if it was “really” art. Many encyclopedic museums (art museums that collect from throughout history) focused on collection art that was very well established and already considered important or valuable. Contemporary art was new and unproven, so encyclopedic museums, like the Art Institute of Chicago, didn’t collect or even show much of it. There was no museum in Chicago focused on contemporary art. In 1964, a group of Chicagoans led by Joseph R. Shapiro and Doris Lane Butler got together and decided to start their own museum of contemporary art. This group of art collectors, philanthropists, artists, and architects met in their living rooms and restaurants to plan what the museum should be like and where it should be. The MCA opened in 1967 at 257 E. Ontario Street. The founders wanted to provide a forum for current creativity in the arts and a place where new ideas could be shared and tested. The museum was designed to be a bridge between Chicago and the rest of the creative world. It invited artistic experimentation from around the world and shared out Chicago’s rich cultural offerings nationally and internationally. The Museum emphasized artistic experimentation and multi-disciplinary approach, featuring dance, performance, music, poetry, film, and education programs in addition to exhibitions.
-Erin Matson, Librarian and Archivist
Why are the Calder mobiles stationary?
There is no flowing air around the Calder’s because we are trying to protect them. Motion of the pieces could lead to wear and tear on the metal joints. If the painted elements bump into each other it could cause the paint to crack and flake.
-Kayla Foster, Collections Administrative Assistant
What was the first piece of artwork put in the museum?
The first piece of art in the MCA was actually installed outside of the museum. When the MCA opened in 1967, a 50 foot long copper relief sculpture by Zoltan Kemeny titled Geographie D’Interieur 2 (Interior Geography) was installed on the façade of the MCA's original location at 237 E. Ontario. It remained there until 1978 when the Ontario building was expanded and renovated.
-Mary Richardson, Director Library & Museum Services
