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Green Room Newsletter<\/p>\n
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Stay ahead of what\u2019s hitting Chicago stages, galleries, museums and more with Green Room, WBEZ\u2019s weekly arts & culture newsletter!<\/p>\n
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The Art Institute of Chicago has not been entirely immune to these challenges, including a 7% post-pandemic attendance decline that stems in part from a drop in international traffic to the United States.<\/p>\n
But James Rondeau, who this month marks the 10th anniversary of his appointment as president and director, is pushing ahead undeterred, with a billion-dollar endowment that\u2019s increased 70% during his tenure and about 1,000 art acquisitions each year. Highlights include a 26-by-18-foot stained glass church window created in 1917 by Tiffany Studios that has become an audience favorite.<\/p>\n
The number of local visitors? That\u2019s up too, with much of the growth coming from neighborhoods that the museum historically underserved, Rondeau said. Although regular adult admission is $32, the museum has significantly boosted its free-access program, which drew 300,000 visitors in 2025.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Rondeau was eager to talk about the gift of Chicago collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, who gifted 200 paintings, 50 sculptures and nearly 2,000 drawings to the museum in early 2025. <\/p>\n Installation view of French Neoclassical Paintings from The Horvitz Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024.<\/p>\n But the ambitious former contemporary curator also starts this year trying to course correct from an April 2025 stumble, when he reportedly stripped off his clothes after drinking alcohol and taking prescription medication on a flight from Chicago to Germany. Rondeau subsequently took a 1\u00bd-month volunteer leave from his position.<\/p>\n In a video call from his office in January, he described the incident as a \u201cvery low moment both personally and professionally\u201d and expressed thanks for the museum board\u2019s continued belief in him by allowing him to return to his position.<\/p>\n \u201cAs clich\u00e9 as it is,\u201d Rondeau said, \u201cevery challenge is an opportunity, and that presented a number of opportunities for me to move forward with a healthy work-life balance and an attentive understanding to wellness. I believe it\u2019s firmly in the rearview mirror, but it\u2019s important to acknowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Rondeau enters the start of his second decade at the helm of the AIC, one clear focus is expansion.<\/p>\n Anthony Vazquez\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n As he enters his second decade at the helm, one clear focus is expansion. Though the Art Institute is the second largest art museum in North America, it needs more space, according to Rondeau. He points out that only about 15% of the museum\u2019s modern and contemporary collection is on view, and its renowned collection of 20th-century surrealism is \u201conly barely represented.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes an addition would help the museum maintain its competitive edge. \u201cWhen you visit this museum, you\u2019re at one of the great museums of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if we spent a decade letting our peers refine their facilities and visitor experience and improve access to their collections and we didn\u2019t do that, we would fall behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Concrete aspirations<\/p>\n Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Rondeau grew up in nearby South Hadley, an academic milieu where he had easy access to five \u201camazing art museums,\u201d sparking his interest in the field. During his early college studies in American art history, he made his first visit to the Art Institute.<\/p>\n After serving as the associate curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, Rondeau took the same position with the Art Institute in 1998. Six years later, he became head of the modern and contemporary art department. His 18 years as a contemporary curator included organizing large survey exhibitions devoted to such heavy hitters as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Charles Ray and Cy Twombly.<\/p>\n But when it came to taking the museum\u2019s top job, Rondeau is quick to acknowledge that a big challenge of his promotion was moving from the focused world of contemporary art to overseeing the entire museum, which has 11 curatorial departments and houses thousands of years of art from nearly every part of the world. \u201cThis job is very, very different, from the narrowest construct to the broadest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Art Institute of Chicago has 11 curatorial departments and houses thousands of years of art from nearly every part of the world.<\/p>\n Sarah Kelly Oehler, the Art Institute\u2019s chair and curator of arts of the Americas and vice president of curatorial strategy, praised his style of leadership, which she described as empowering his staff and avoiding micromanaging.<\/p>\n \u201cJames was a longtime curator himself, and he really understands what it means to be a curator,\u201d said Oehler, who has worked at the museum since 2002. \u201cHe is very willing and supportive in helping us realize our collections and the exhibitions we put on at the museum. From that regard, I think it\u2019s been a terrific 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n In an in-depth conversation with WBEZ\/Sun-Times that covered a wide range of the Art Institute\u2019s activities, a prepared Rondeau pointed to the museum\u2019s strong financial position. More than 40% of the institution\u2019s annual $122 million budget is funded with earnings from its $1.12 billion endowment. That\u2019s notably higher than the industry average of 25% among American art museums, according to the Association of Art Museum Directors.<\/p>\n But the director\u2019s tenure has not been without its controversies. After a bitter struggle, employees of the Art Institute \u2014 including custodians, curators, library staff and gift-shop workers \u2014 voted to unionize<\/a> in January 2022.<\/p>\n At the same time, Rondeau acknowledged \u201clessons learned\u201d and \u201cmistakes made\u201d in 2021 with the museum\u2019s clumsy switch from a longtime coterie of volunteer ushers to paid positions in an attempt to create pay equity. Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg described it as having the makings of \u201cone of those evergreen PR disasters still talked about 25 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe way we communicated didn\u2019t actually make people valued or respected for their contributions to the museum,\u201d Rondeau said. \u201cWe were trying to do exactly the opposite and ended up making many people disaffected.\u201d<\/p>\n The director hopes the lessons learned from such moments guide future decision-making.<\/p>\n One of his earliest and most forward-looking moves as director was hiring the Spanish firm Barozzi Veiga in 2017 to create an architectural master plan for the museum and help rethink how it presents its collections.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Spanish firm Barozzi Veiga redesigned the museum\u2019s Michigan Avenue lobby. <\/p>\n Courtesy of Charles Young<\/p>\n The first manifestation of the firm\u2019s work was a makeover of the museum\u2019s Michigan Avenue lobby, which Rondeau said is now \u201cmuch more open, much more welcoming and much brighter.\u201d More recently, the firm oversaw the redesign<\/a> of the museum\u2019s 17th, 18th and 19th-century European design galleries, giving them a minimalist, contemporary look that will serve as a model for other spaces in the museum.<\/p>\n Barozzi Veiga is also front and center in the recently announced transformation<\/a> of a former principal exhibition space into a projected $50 million art conservation center \u2014 something Rondeau called \u201cone of the great, state-of-the-art [such] facilities in the United States.\u201d It is set to open in fall 2027.<\/p>\n Under discussion is another addition to the museum. The newest part of the museum is the 17-year-old Modern Wing, a 264,000-square-foot structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. \u201cWe have very concrete aspirations,\u201d Rondeau said. \u201cWe do not have an approved building project.\u201d<\/p>\n Debra Kerr, president and CEO of Chicago\u2019s Intuit Art Museum, questions the need for a further wing. \u201cWith some of the vagaries with federal and foundation funding, I think all museums need to view expansion projects with care,\u201d she said. \u201cHow much increase in operational costs can we withstand?\u201d<\/p>\n An eye for masterpieces across millennia<\/p>\n When Rondeau was appointed director in 2016, it was easy to wonder, given his background, if the museum was going to take a heavy turn to contemporary art, a field that has become trendy with collectors and donors. But that has not happened.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m being given the privilege to sit in this office in order to support the ancient Mediterranean, to support Indian textiles and Japanese screen painting in the 17th century. That\u2019s the job,\u201d Rondeau said. \u201cIt\u2019s not discretionary on my part to say, \u2018I\u2019m going to ignore the finances and just love contemporary art.\u2019 That would be a recipe for failure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of reflecting on what leadership means and what I expect of myself and what I expect I can offer the institution,\u201d Rondeau said.<\/p>\n Anthony Vazquez\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n Under his leadership, the museum has put more emphasis on art of the ancient Americas and Indigenous art. In addition, in 2020, the museum hired its first associate curator of Korean art, Yeonsoo Chee, and later added an assistant curator for textiles and arts of Greece, Rome and Byzantium, the Byzantine art specialist Stephanie Caruso.<\/p>\n Even the director\u2019s own office sports a rotation of works on view from storage that show a cross-section of the museum\u2019s collection. The two main paintings currently displayed are Ellsworth Kelly\u2019s \u201cTrain Landscape\u201d (1953) and \u201cThe Customs House at Varengeville\u201d (1897) by Claude Monet. Rondeau, not missing a chance to teach, was quick to point out that the latter greatly influenced Kelly.<\/p>\n When asked about important acquisitions during his decade at the helm, Rondeau did mention one modern work: \u201cStill Life Reviving\u201d (1963) by Remedios Varo. That 2024 acquisition came a year after the museum presented a solo exhibition of her work \u2014 its first ever show devoted to a female surrealist painter and to a woman artist from Mexico.<\/p>\n![\"Installation](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769725212_990_.jpeg\")
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