MOVIES in Grant Park
Creating avenues for Chicago families to enjoy summer in the city, the Chicago Park District announces Movies in the Parks where current and classic movies will be shown in Grant Park throughout the city, every Tuesday Evening from June through September. Grab a picnic basket and a blanket and enjoy the show. You bring the snacks, we'll bring the stars.
LINCOLN PARK ZOO
Lincoln Park Zoo is everyone’s zoo. And although it is among the oldest zoological gardens in the country (established in 1868), it also is among the most modern—a leader in wildlife conservation, community education and recreation. A premier Chicago attraction, Lincoln Park Zoo each year welcomes more than three million visitors, providing them with remarkable learning experiences as well as fun and enjoyment. And it's free! www.lpzoo.org.
BUCKINGHAM FOUNTAIN
in Grant Park
The Fountain operates from mid April to mid October, depending on weather. Every hour on the hour for 20 minutes the fountain produces a major water display and the center jet shoots 150 feet into the air. Beginning at dusk, every hour on the hour for 20 minutes the fountain's major water display is accompanied by a major light and music display. The final display of the evening begins at 10:00 p.m. http://www.aviewoncities.com/Chicago/grantpark.html
LINCOLN PARK CONSERVATORY
Step inside and be transported to another place and time - Lincoln Park Conservatory - where you will find tropical palms and ancient ferns, right in the heart of Lincoln Park. The perfect escape from cold winter days!!!! http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.results.cfm
FREE ADMISSION!
365 Days A Year! NOTE: "suggested "donation during special events and exhibits.
G R A N T P A R K
The Park's structure is based on the French parks with geometric designs. It consists of a series of bridges which cross the Railway tracks that are still on the park's compound. After the bridges, the park is divided in sections with lawns, trees and monuments, one of them being a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The front near Michigan Lake provides a favorite track for many strollers, joggers and bikers.
SPIRIT of MUSIC GARDEN
Grant Park
Chicago SummerDance Festival
An 11-week festival features one-hour dance lessons followed by live music and dancing. The Nomadic DJ Series features local and international acts at multiple venues across the city (no dance lesson). Hear world music on Thursdays; Latin, jazz, country and funk on Fridays and Saturdays; and ballroom/big band tunes on Sundays. The DJ series invites you to shake it with dance music.
FREE ADMISSION!
365 Days A Year!
FREE ADMISSION!
365 Days A Year! NOTE: "suggested "donation during special events and exhibits.
GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY
Celebrating the Conservatory's 100 Year Anniversary in 2008!
The Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois is one of the largest and most stunning conservatories in the nation. Often referred to as "landscape art under glass," the Garfield Park Conservatory occupies approximately 4.5 acres inside and out, and includes cold frames and propagating where thousands of plants are grown each year for displays in City parks and spaces. Featuring five permanent collections, an indoor children's garden, outdoor gardens and five annual flower shows. Open daily 9am to 5pm, admission and parking are free. EVENTS
M I L L E N N I U M P A R K
Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre park is an unprecedented center for world-class art, music, architecture and landscape design, where you can experience everything from interactive public art and ice skating to al fresco dining (in the summer) and free classical music presentations by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. Among the park’s prominent features is the dazzling Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States, designed by Frank Gehry, one of the world's greatest living architects.
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.
Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high. Cloud Gate sits upon the At&T Plaza, which was made possible by a gift from AT&T.
What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline…so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.
-Anish Kapoor
The Crown Fountain
The water is on from mid-spring through mid-fall each year (weather permitting,) while the images remain on year-round.
Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa and inspired by the people of Chicago, The Crown Fountain is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection.
The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens, a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculpted with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out. Plensa adapted this practice by having faces of Chicago citizens projected on LED screens and having water flow through a water outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. The collection of faces, Plensa's tribute to Chicagoans, was taken from a cross-section of 1,000 residents.
The fountain, which anchors the southwest corner of Millennium Park at Michigan Avenue and Monroe Streets, is a favorite of both children and families.
Pritzker Pavilion --Millennium Park
Millennium Park offers something for all music lovers. From concerts by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus and Chicago's jazz greats to the Gospel Music Festival, each year the park hosts a roster of music events that is as diverse as the City itself. Pack a gourmet picnic (baskets in the apt's) and head down to Millennium Park for an unforgetable evening!
Lurie Garden
Designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel, this 2.5-acre garden pays homage to the City's motto, "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden), which refers to Chicago's transformation from its flat and marshy origins to a bold and powerful city. Highlights of the garden include the dramatically lit, 15-foot-high "shoulder" hedge. This physical representation of Sandburg's famous description of the "City of Big Shoulders" encloses the garden on two sides and protects the delicate perennial garden. A graceful hardwood footbridge over shallow water divides the garden diagonally between "light" and "dark" plates.
BP Bridge
Connecting Millennium Park to Daley Bicentennial Plaza, east of the park, this 925-foot-long winding bridge, Frank Gehry's first, provides incomparable views of the Chicago skyline, Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Clad in brushed stainless steel panels, the BP Bridge complements the Pritzker Pavilion in function as well as design by creating an acoustic barrier from the traffic noise below. It also has a 5% slope to allow easy access for people who are physically challenged.
FREE ADMISSION!
365 Days A Year!
Along Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road.
"Agora" is the Greek word for "meeting place" in a town. This site is populated by 106 cast iron figures, each about 9 feet tall, shell-like, frozen in walking movement. People love it or hate it. There's nothing in between,'' said Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council.
Work said to reflect anxiety
The 76-year-old artist avoided spelling out exactly her intent with her piece, telling reporters, "art is beyond words.'' But she did allow that filling out the 1,800-pound cast-iron figures with heads and arms "would be literal. It would be television.''
Abakanowicz has said her works, which can be found around the world, reflect anxiety over crowds, over isolation and over the dangers of lockstep societies -- feelings she developed as a child when her family lost their country estate to invading Nazis, forcing her to grow up in a densely populated Warsaw neighborhood.
Designed to be walked through and around, Agora, being erected on cement pads at Michigan and Roosevelt, presents a setting in which the visitor "can ask questions and maybe find an answer,'' she said. "You can come alone and maybe be inspired.'' With a bark-like texture, the 9-foot-tall figures also resemble trees. Abakanowicz suggested children might want to try climbing them, though Chicago Park District Supt. Timothy Mitchell nervously added, "at a safe level.''
Forged in Poland and transported to America by ship, Agora has a $3 million price tag. Donors, including actor Robin Williams, working through the park district-affiliated Parkways Foundation, are contributing about $700,000, with the rest coming from the Polish government and a Polish foundation. Mitchell said no tax dollars are being used.
FREE ADMISSION!
365 Days A Year!
CHICAGO'S BEACHES
And let’s not forget Chicago’s sensational Lakefront and Parks with its 29 miles of walking, jogging and cycling paths along with 13 miles of beaches. This sightseeing pleasure costs no more than the price of a comfortable pair of walking shoes.
Bike Rental: www.bikechicago.com from April thru October
Enjoy More of Chicago for Less
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