CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An art museum in West Town, which features so-called “outsider art,” will be expanding thanks to a new, multi-million dollar grant from the City of Chicago.
For more than 30 years the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art has showcased self-taught artists and works from artists who have overcome personal odds.
“These art-makers, typically facing some barrier — whether that’s [a] socio-economic, political or geographic barrier — and weren’t able to attend art school in a traditional way, but they have an inner-vision that needs to be expressed,” said the center’s CEO, Deb Kerr. “It’s incredibly powerful art.”
Chicago, Kerr added, is seen around the world as a home for the genre, and the center is one of the few places anywhere to focus solely on outsider art.
With its new $5 million grant from the City, the center plans to double its exhibition space for those artists at the Intuit Outsider Art Museum campus in West Town.
Kerr said the donation will allow the center to boast four total galleries, which means the museum will be able to have permanent space for some of their best known outsider artists.
The museum currently has around 1,300 works of art in its collection.
“The artist Henry Darger, who is, for many people, their doorway to this genre of art, arguably the world’s most famous outsider artist, and he was from here in Chicago,” Kerr said. “We have his belongings and his room, and things that were in his room, and we’re gonna reinstall the room and create kind of a historical, contextual exhibit about the artist.”
The museum will also become more accessible for those with disabilities, due to the grant funding.
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