Location: South Side
Top Things to do in South Side
10 Museums in South Side That You Shouldn't Miss
The windy city is a cornucopia of modern art, fine dining, cutting edge comedy, and die-hard sports fans. Snap a photo of your reflection in the silver Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park before heading to Grant Park to get hit with the refreshing spray of Buckingham Fountain. There are dozens of museums and theater companies in Chicago, so a cultural experience is never hard to find. You’re sure to laugh your head off at the Second City Theater, the professional launch pad of many famous comedians.
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1. The Renaissance Society
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 3 reviews
The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago presents contemporary art exhibitions, events, and publications. “The Ren”—as we are known by many—is an independent, non-collecting museum driven by an uncompromising commitment to artists and their ideas. All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. We offer artists the time, space, resources, and freedom that are vital for ambitious experimentation and risk-taking. Our work with artists frequently results in newly commissioned art, and their presentations in our 3,000 sq ft gallery spur further scholarly and creative reflections in our publications and public programs. Visitors to the Ren find a uniquely intimate platform for encountering artistic expressions that give form to, challenge, and complicate currents in contemporary thought. Events—including artist talks, lectures, screenings, concerts, readings, and more—offer further opportunities for discovery and discussion.
2. South Side Community Art Center
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
The South Side Community Art Center, has been an official Chicago Landmark since 1994. It is the oldest African American Art Center of its kind in the U.S. Experience this cultural icon to view and purchase outstanding works of fine art. Visit this art influencer to witness where many renown artists launched their careers. SSCAC was co-founded by Dusable Museum co-creator Dr. Margaret Burroughs.
3. Oriental Institute Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 552 reviews
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is a leading research center for the ancient Middle East. The museum houses some 350,000 artifacts—around 5,000 of which are on display—excavated mainly by OI archaeologists. Founded in 1919, at a time when the Middle East was called the Orient, the OI has pioneered innovative excavations and comprehensive dictionary projects that chronicle ancient civilizations. The Oriental Institute Museum aims to understand, reveal, and protect ancient Middle Eastern civilizations.
Reviewed By 515rauld - Chicago, United States
An Oasis you can explore Hyde Park and Univ. Of Chicago close to downtown by Bus and yet a different world.
4. Museum of Science and Industry
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 10,973 reviews
The largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere! Housed in the only remaining building from the 1893 World’s Fair, MSI is a Chicago must-see. You’ll experience 14 acres of hands-on exhibits and have the chance to stand before a 40-foot tornado; climb aboard a World War II German submarine; take a run in a human-sized hamster wheel; descend into an Illinois coal mine; tour a fully functioning eco-friendly home; board a 727 hanging from the ceiling; transmit your pulse to a 13-foot, 3-D beating heart; and much more! MSI is not a place where you walk around quietly and observe. No way! You get involved in the fun—and learn—by doing. Just a few miles from downtown with convenient underground parking.
Reviewed By 667lisay
This is my favorite Chicago museum because there are so many hands on exhibits! So many favorite things: Christmas around the World exhibit, the Omnimax theatre, the submarine tour, the chicks, the bicycle exhibit, the African American artwork, the circus exhibit, the Fairy Castle, the Mirror Maze, and more! We always have a fun time when we go!
5. DuSable Museum of African American History
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 93 reviews
A museum dedicated to African-American history, art and culture.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
As a historian of the Civil War, I believe it is important for every American to learn about white, Latino and African-American history, culture and art. And I believe there is no better place to learn and explore African-American history than the DuSable Museum of African-American History. Located at 740 East 56th Place, in Washington Park, on Chicago's South Side, it was founded in 1961 by noted activists Margaret and Charles Burroughs and moved to its current location in 1973. It is the oldest and, before the founding of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington D.C., the largest caretaker of African-American culture in the United States. The museum has a collection of 13,000 artifacts, books, photographs, art objects and memorabilia, including slavery-era relics, 19th and 20th century artifacts, the works of scholar W.E.B. DuBois, author James Baldwin, poet Langston Hughes and sociologist St. Clair Drake, the artwork of Charles White, Gus Nall, Marion Perkins and Archibald Motley Jr., and prints and drawings by Henry O. Tanner, Richmond Barthe and Romare Bearden. The museum serves as Chicago's primary memorial to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the first non-Native American permanent settler in the city. The collection also includes the desk of activist Ida B. Wells, the violin of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and the Charles Dawson Papers. The museum is designated as a Chicago Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
6. Smart Museum of Art
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 51 reviews
The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago is a site for inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. Admission is always free and the Museum is open to everyone. Through strong community and scholarly partnerships, the Museum incorporates diverse ideas, identities, and experiences into its exhibitions and collections, academic initiatives, and public programming. Collections spanning many geographic regions and historical areas inform ambitious exhibitions that reflect our global world—both contemporaneously and across history. Unique programs compliment exhibition and collection themes, inspiring critical dialogue and creative efforts.
7. Heritage Museum of Asian Art
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 5 reviews
Heritage Museum of Asian Art showcases a wide range of art forms, spanning many cultures and time periods of Asia. The museum's collection includes archaic and modern jades, Neolithic pottery, imperial porcelains, Chinese snuff bottles, scholar's objects, textiles, bronzes and more. Classical Chinese furniture also adorns the galleries.
Reviewed By MSchmidChicago
This museum has Tang era sculpture to rival that at Chicago's Art Institute, and has a collection of Han era sculpture that is rarely seen. And that's just the beginning.
8. Chinese-American Museum of Chicago
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 15 reviews
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
In keeping with one of our promises of what to do during our retirement years, to learn about other cultures, my wife and I spent a day touring Chicago's Chinatown community. One of our stops was at the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, which seeks to commemorate and interpret the experiences of Chinese immigrants to Chicago and the American Midwest. Located at 238 West 23rd Street, the museum opened in 2005, sustained a devastating fire in 2008, then reopened in 2010. It tells the history of the first Chinese who arrived in Chicago in 1869 after escaping the anti-Chinese violence that had broken out on the West Coast, then helping to build the first Transcontinental Railroad. It tells how they established Chinese laundries and chop suey restaurants to earn a living and how "New Chinatown" was officially proclaimed in 1912 in the area of Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, where the famous Chinatown Gate can be seen today. See exhibits about how 12,000 Chinese workers constructed the first transcontinental railway and how they immigrated to the Midwest. Also view a 16-minute video that details the stories of the people of Chinatown, their journeys, their customs, their work, their families. One feature not to miss: a documentary screening of Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story, which highlights the life of 100-year-old Dorothy Toy Fong, a legendary dance figure who teamed with Paul Wing during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s to become the most famous Asian American dance duo in this country's history, pioneers who performed on Broadway and in Hollywood films.
9. Chicago Maritime Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 22 reviews
From its earliest beginnings, Chicago has been defined as a city rising from the lake. From French fur traders paddling canoes to lumber-laden schooners and freighters transporting grain and coal to today's canoes and kayaks plying the Chicago river and streamlined sailboats racing north to Mackinac Island, the city continues to evolve from its strategic post at the foot of the Great Lakes. Since 1982, the Chicago Maritime Museum has collected more than 6,000 items that commemorate Chicago's maritime history, including ship models, articles, books, displays, art, images, and nautical artifacts. As a result, the new Chicago Maritime Museum adeptly tells the story of how Chicago's history and development stem from its axis between the Great Lakes and the waterways that flow into the Mississippi River. Designed by architect and museum vice president Dirk Lohan, the museum offers visitors a chronological walk through local maritime history, including the eras of french fur trading, grand masted schooners, modern commercial freighters, recreational sailing, crew racing on the rivers and the Ralph and Rita Frese canoe collection.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
As a matter of full disclosure, I wasn't aware that Chicago had a maritime museum. Now I am. Opened in 2016, at 1200 West 35th Street, in the Bridgeport neighborhood, the Chicago Maritime Museum is dedicated to the study and memorialization of Chicago's maritime traditions. It asserts that Lake Michigan and the Chicago River were key factors in Chicago's growth and its development as a world-class city. Chicago's maritime history hit its peak during the "Golden Age" of the American steamboat, when small but fast steamers carried passengers and freight over the Great Lakes to Chicago before and during the Civil War. At the same time, canal boats paraded up and down the newly dug Illinois and Michigan Canal from Chicago to the Illinois River and even the Mississippi River. According to the museum, Chicago's ship-docking operations in 1872 exceeded that of any other port in the United States. Today, the Chicago Maritime Museum has a collection of over 6,000 items of tangible maritime heritage. Interestingly, it is located adjacent to a former working tributary of the Chicago River, Bubbly Creek, made famous in Upton Sinclair's book on Chicago's meat packing industry. It also celebrates industrial Lake Calumet and the beaches, deep tunnels and pumping stations of Chicago and pays tribute to Chicago's Irish-American community, which dug many canals and was a key support group within the city's maritime history. Admission is free.
10. Stony Island Arts Bank
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 4 reviews
