The Richard H. Driehaus Museum invites art and architecture lovers to shift their warped and worn perception of time with the second iteration of its “Tale of Today” contemporary art initiative. Through the end of January, visitors to the Gilded Age mansion and museum can check out the exhibition, featuring two contemporary Chicago-based artists—Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi—who’ve created site-specific works responding to the complex history of the building.
“When we asked ourselves how a young museum housed in a Gilded Age mansion could offer a way to connect past and present, we found the answer in the legacy of the Nickerson family, through their intentions, and the art and design embedded on the walls of their 1883 home,” said Anna Musci, the museum’s interim executive director, during a live-streamed event for the show’s opening. The Nickersons rose to prominence with the national banking industry, at one point owning more stock than anyone in the United States. The family spared no expense on the aesthetics of their three-story Near North Side mansion, which was designed by Edward J. Burling of Burling and Whitehouse.
