If yous're planning to visit the Art Institute of Chicago, I'll give you fair alarm that you may want to schedule a nap in your afternoon. With more than 300,000 works in its permanent collection, spanning v,000 years of inventiveness, the gargantuan and seemingly e'er-expanding campus is the second-largest fine art museum in the state, at well-nigh i million square anxiety. You'll need to wind your way through the maze-similar galleries and ancient displays of pottery and other items that people tiptoe past to get to the more popular halls.

The Art Institute is an encyclopedic fine art museum, which means there's a fiddling chip of everything, from everywhere—Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan art; Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art; African fine art; American art; American decorative art; pottery; bronzes; sculpture; installations; modernistic fine art; miniatures and more. That'due south a skillful thing if yous're a true art lover interested in spending an entire mean solar day here. It's a challenge if you just want a quick walk through earlier packing other museums into a compact visit.

If you're brusk on time, the Fine art Establish'southward must-sees include its extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, which is considered one of the finest in the world. Since 2009, the airy, lite-filled Mod Wing has been showcasing the museum's extensive drove of 20th- and 21st-century art. And two of the museum's nearly dear works are on brandish in the American art, pre-1950 gallery: American Gothic past Grant Woods and Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

To help yous navigate the endless halls, visit the Art Institute's website and download the new free app, which offers 50 unlike tours and makes the museum experience more than manageable than getting lost on your own. A split up app guides you through Impressionist works, enriching your visit with detailed descriptions of the art and the artists who created information technology.

If y'all've visiting with kids, stop by the Ryan Education Center in the Modern Wing, where kids and teens tin sit at a workstation and get easily-on lessons from artists. Children likewise love the Thorne Miniature Rooms, where dollhouse-similar structures, all constructed to scale, showcase European and American homes, buildings, and interiors. The Fine art Plant offers a variety of lectures and workshops, so cheque their calendar to see what's happening during your visit.

A discussion of communication: The Art Institute can go incredibly crowded on weekends. If you can avoid visiting on a Saturday or Sunday, do and then. Many people don't realize that the museum is, indeed, open on Mon, which makes information technology a groovy time to visit. As well, many visitors are unaware of the tardily Th hours, and then consider visiting then, too, to avoid rush hour.

If you get hungry during your visit, stop by the museum's Caffe Moderno for soups, salads, and sandwiches, or visit Terzo Piano for a more elegant, sit-downward meal. And save time for the enormous gift shop, which sells cute art, jewelry, accessories, books, and more. Permit at least 3 hours.