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Curator Zoë Ryan invited artists, designers, and architects to use works from the museum’s collection as a means to make vital connections and start timely conversations. Here are six selections.

The department celebrates its centenary with a look at some of the spectacular works and key figures that have shaped the collection.

For decades, various types of drawings guided the artist as he painted, becoming an integral part of his process.

Staff members recommend books that you should read this year.

Though it’s tempting to consign ruins to the past, many artworks remind us that their presence is more than mere physicality.

Architect Bruce Goff viewed the world with open eyes, seeing a spark for creative exploration in every scrap of shiny paper, every unusual piece of driftwood, and each bar of music.

For architect Bruce Goff, artistic creativity in one medium bled into another, inspiring his original visions.

Our grounds manager takes you step-by-step through the process of creating the bespoke evergreen wreaths that herald the arrival of the holidays in Chicago.

Sometimes galleries are never more alive than when filled with people sketching.

This story reminds us that collections are shaped by real people—with real ambitions, contradictions, and desires.

Ever wonder how the ancient Romans kept up with the latest hairstyle trends?

A portrait created with agency is not just something you look at—it’s an exchange and celebration of points of view.

Four staff members share works of art that fit in the palm of the hand and yet expand our sense of the world.

The artist Yeesookyung celebrates imperfection and the vulnerability of beauty by creating new forms from the fragments of discarded ceramics.

Takaezu’s artworks not only merge the energy of Abstract Expressionism with the forms of traditional Japanese ceramics—they have a life of their own.

His works are horribly, insistently, uncompromisingly grotesque and repulsive—and that’s the perfect reason to spend time with them.

Their images may have been carved into stone, but their identity has been lost to time.

Sometimes art unexpectedly results from our desire to refine and organize information.

Amulets, worn by the living and the dead, connected ancient Egyptians to their deities and the natural world.

Originally created for Siamese royalty and nobility, this collection of hand-painted porcelain once belonged to a Norwegian naval officer.