Top 5 Attractions in Grant Park for Sage Summit 2016
Grant Park is considered to be Chicago’s “front yard”. It’s a public park within Chicago’s central business district that expands 319 acres. As mentioned in our first blog of this series, Places to Explore in Chicago During Sage Summit 2016, there are so many exciting and worthwhile attractions to see in Chicago. We tried to narrow it down to just 5 places to explore in Chicago, but that was a difficult task. So we’ve created a separate list of 5 places to see within Grant Park. The park includes performance venues, sports facilities, gardens, art work, and holds large public gatherings and events. See below for our list of places to explore in Grant Park.
1) Buckingham Fountain
Officially called Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, this is one of the largest fountains in the world and is considered a Chicago landmark, within the center of Grant Park. The fountain was built in 1927 to provide a focal point for Grant Park, while protecting the park’s beautiful lakefront views. The fountain was actually inspired by the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles and is meant to represent Lake Michigan. The four sea horses symbolize the four surrounding states that border the lake, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. The fountain will be operating in July, 8:00am-11:00pm; with regular 20 minute water shows every hour on-the-hour and color-lights during the evening.
2) Millennium Park
In the northwestern corner of Grant Park is an area called Millennium Park, which is a 24.5 acre park with a selection of stunning architecture, sculptures and landscape design. The park has free admission and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the Lurie Garden and other attractions.
3) Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate is a 110-ton elliptical sculpture that’s among the largest of its kind in the world. Inspired by liquid mercury, it was created by British artist Anish Kapoor with highly polished stainless steel plates, to reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. The 12 foot high arch provides a “gate” beneath the sculpture and invites visitors to touch and view the sculpture.
4) Art Institute of Chicago
This institution owns more than 300,000 artworks and artifacts from all over the world. You could get lost in this place for hours. Artworks range from ancient art to work being created by today’s foremost artists. The museum is open daily from 10:30am to 5:00pm (open until 8:00pm on Thursdays). Visit the Art Institute of Chicago website for a list of the current exhibitions.
5) Museum Campus
Museum Campus is a 57 acre addition to Grant Park’s southeastern end. Three well known museums within Museum Campus are Adler Planetarium, Field Museum of Natural History and Shedd Aquarium. A small strip of land along Solidarity Drive, which is lined with Neoclassical sculptures, connects Adler Planetarium to the rest of the museums that are located on the mainland.
Written by Leah Weston, Marketing Manager at DSD Business Systems