Eclipses in Adler, ghost tours in Hull-House

Our department may be called Art+Entertainment, but great exhibitions are not just tonic. They should challenge your way of thinking, maybe even send you with a knot in your stomach. From where don’t do that Do we know the name Camille Claudel? Is race really a fixed category? How much non-recyclable waste do you create and how much are you ready to face?

To say that some of the museum openings this fall are “controversial” is not an exclamation, but a compliment of the highest order. There are a few people to run, not from there:

“In Search of Eclipses”: Mark your calendars: The next solar eclipses will occur from North America on October 14 and April 8, 2024. (The second of these is Chicago, just outside of a total eclipse; the moon covers 95% of the sun.) Exciting stuff – but you have to wonder what people on Earth were thinking thousands of years ago, when what an eclipse was less understood. it was, much less a tourism industry built around it. The Adler Planetarium answers all this and more in this exhibition that will last until the April eclipse. Until April 8, every day from 09:00 to 16:00 except Wednesdays from 16:00 to 22:00. At the Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, basic admission $8-19; adlerplanetarium.org

A drop in the ocean: This summer, the Museum of Science and Industry opened a modest, gripping exhibition that explores the pressures of plastic pollution on ocean life. The visuals and storytelling are plain, but it’s not just a lesson in disaster and gloom. Beginning as a hotly-received pop-up exhibition in London, “The Blue Paradox” outlines how you, as a consumer, can change your daily habits to cushion the blow to marine ecosystems. Open run, 9:30am to 4:00pm daily at the Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive; tickets $15-26; msichicago.org

Race in medieval and early modern Europe: Race was nothing more than a static concept, inherently dependent on culture and place. The Newberry Library’s latest exhibition explores this fluidity through a series of public programs and a range of resources from Newberry’s collection: manuscripts, Renaissance costume books, maps and travel books from European and Native perspectives, jewellery, religious and ceremonial objects, plays. and more. “Seeing the Race Before the Race” will run until Tuesday, December 30-Thursday. Friday, from 10:00 to 19:00. and Saturday. 10am to 5pm, Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St.; free; newberry.org

Running in the family: The latest episode of the Chinese American Museum’s Spotlight Series features father-daughter artists Adrian Wong and 5-year-old Clementine Reid Wong. Wong is a professor at the Art Institute School; As Reid Wong states in his biography, “degree candidate at Drummond Montessori School (kindergarten, ’24).” The Wongs created works on display together to answer two daunting questions: “What makes something Chinese?” and “What does We Chinese?” In doing so, they also refer to “Chinese Art,” or “Chinese Things,” as Reid Wong calls it, the Western art frenzy derived from Orientalist motifs. “Chinoiserie (Chinesey Things)” will run until Wednesday, October 22. and Friday. Sunday, 9:30 am to 5 pm. 10 am to 5 pm, Chicago Chinese American Museum, 238 W. 23rd St.; suggested donation $5-8; ccamuseum.org

On their own terms: “We are in the presence of something unique, nature’s rebellion: a female genius,” wrote art critic Octave Mirbeau of Camille Claudel (1864-1943). However, as has happened to women in male-dominated fields, the sculptor’s work has been overshadowed by the more salacious details of her life, such as her relationship with her famous teacher Rodin or her struggles with mental illness in recent years. his life. The retrospective “Camille Claudel” at the Art Institute offers a necessary correction. From 7 October to 19 February 2024, 11:00 – 17:00 Friday-Mon, 11:00 – 20:00 Thursday, closed on Tuesday. and Weds., Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets are $26-32; artic.edu

Open House Chicago: With more than 170 venues in more than 20 neighborhoods presented by the Chicago Architecture Center, one of the city’s most famous harbingers of fall returns. Check out the Open House’s beloved venues, such as the Pullman House Museum and the Riviera Theatre, and rare public buildings such as the Edgewater Beach Apartments, once a legendary cultural venue, and The Forum in Bronzeville. Also worth checking out: The National Cambodian Heritage Museum in Lincoln Square and the house where Walt Disney was born in Hermosa are both on this year’s official list of site partners. Open House Chicago, multiple locations, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, October 14-15; free; openhousechicago.org

Creepy, weird, mysterious and creepy…: Sorry, wrong Addams. But Jane Addams’ Hull-House apparently has a grisly reputation, topping lists of most haunted places in the US. evening ghost tours A museum educator will help you and make sure you don’t end up in the notorious attic of the house. (Seriously. Don’t.) “The Curse of the Hull-House” tours 6pm-8pm, October 13, 20 and 27, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St.; $10 per person; more info soon hullhousemuseum.org

An exhibition on rye: The Illinois Holocaust Museum deviates from the solemnity of its usual programming with “I’ll Have What It Owns,” a lively look at the history of Jewish delis. Original neon signs, menus, advertisements, uniforms, photos and pop culture clips abound, but you’ll have to get your post-visit bacon elsewhere, sorry. From October 22 to April 14, 2024, Wednesday-Mon. 10:00 – 17:00, Illinois Holocaust Museum, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie; $6-18, free on the last Friday of every month; ilholocaustmuseum.org

At Tiffany Driehaus: Flowers in the fall? Now This groundbreaking. The design museum is dusting off its collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps in a joint exhibition with Chicago flower artists who will design accompanying installations for the stained glass lamps. Elizabeth Cronin of Asrai Gardens is curating. “From Glass to Garden: Floral Designs Inspired by Tiffany” will be held from November 30 to January 7, Thursday-Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00. 11:00-15:00, closed on Mondays. and Tuesday, Richard H. Driehaus Museum, 40 E. Erie St.; admission $10-20; driehausmuseum.org

Getting to know Picasso: The Spanish artist can sometimes feel bigger than life, especially if you’re walking around Daley Plaza. But the candid exhibition “Picasso: Drawing from Life” at the Art Institute illuminates Picasso, a clever and ruthless man, as told through a review of figurative works depicting or inspired by his immediate surroundings. Some of Picasso’s more humiliating likenesses show the artist lifting himself from his own well. From 11 November to 8 April 2024, 11:00 to 17:00 Friday. -Mon, 11:00-20:00 Closed on Thursday, Tuesday. and Weds., Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets are $26-32; artic.edu

Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.