Learning Resources

Explore learning resources created by and for the teachers, youth, families, and other members of our MCA Learning Community.

Tour Videos

Look closely at artworks and explore themes of MCA exhibitions with these videos.

TV for Untold Stories

Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this Tour Video Series dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.

TV for Aliens

Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this Tour Video Series dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.

Learning about contemporary art isn’t just a matter of historical facts and artist biographies. Contemporary art is special and important because it can help us see our present moment in new ways. Join the MCA’s Manager of School Programs, Jeremy Kreusch, to explore an exhibition called “Water After All.” Look at four different artworks that mirror for different aspects of water. Discover ways art can inspire us to engage with ourselves, one another, and the world we share.

TV for Your Body

In this episode, we’ll look at art that depicts bodies to help us think about how we see and feel about our own bodies.

TV for the Last Thanks

Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this episode of the "Tour Video" series, dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.

TV for Ave María Purísima (Enlightenment 8)

Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this episode of the "Tour Video" series, dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.

Families

Activities for family members of all ages

River Portraits

A large, white-walled gallery space with several large, colorful works of art, many made out of fabric, installed throughout the room. — Installation view, Carolina Caycedo: From the Bottom of the River, MCA Chicago Dec 12, 2020–Sep 12, 2021
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

How would it feel to be a body of water?

Virtual Family Gallery

Explore artworks on view at the MCA through movement, mindfulness, art-making, picture-book reading, and conversation prompts. With simple click-through instructions, embedded video and audio, and high-quality artwork images, this virtual gallery is designed to be used by children and their caregivers and teachers.

image description pending — MCA Virtual Gallery

Caring Connections

Artworks from The Quarantine Times installed at the MCA as part of The Long Dream exhibition. Installation view, The Long Dream, MCA Chicago November 7, 2020–January 17, 2021
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

by Jacqui Reedy

Imagination Journals

By Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite at the Chicago Creative Reuse Exchange

Monuments for Small Things

Installation view, The Long Dream, MCA Chicago November 7, 2020–January 17, 2021
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Create a 3D monument to something small and not usually celebrated.

Sanctuary Spaces

Create a sanctuary space in your home to find comfort and joy in your body.

Championship Banners

Enjoy this family activity when you come to MCA during The Long Dream exhibition, open now through January 17, 2021. Find the multicolored championship banners by Cheryl Pope hanging in the center of the MCA's main stairwell. While you walk up the stairs, use this guide to have a conversation with your family.

Transforming Tools

Jim Dine, (American, b. 1935). Tools, 1970. Lithograph on paper; 39 ½ × 53 ¾ in. (100.3 × 139.1 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of American Art Foundation, 1980.58
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

by Jacqui Reedy

Queer Plushies

Art For Windows

Wolfgang Tillmans, German, b. 1968 Window Caravaggio, 1997 Chromogenic development print Sheet: 82 ½ × 54 ½ in. (209.6 × 138.4 cm); framed: 86 5/8 × 58 ½ × 2 ½ in. (220 × 148.6 × 6.4 cm)
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Joseph and Jory Shapiro Fund by exchange, 2006.13 Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Watch a recorded conversation between members of the MCA Learning community sharing their responses to this prompt.

Animal Mashups

Two mossy stone figures with human legs and fish torsos sit leaning against each other on a mossy stone by the seashore. On the horizon the shape of a double-masted sailing vessel made out of water rises out of the sea and cuts into the blue, cloud-filled sky. — René Magritte, Belgian, 1898–1967
Les merveilles de la nature (The Wonders of Nature), 1953
Oil on canvas
Encased: 42 5/8 × 50 5/8 × 6 1/2 in. (108.3 × 128.6 × 16.5 cm)
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Joseph and Jory Shapiro, 1982.48
Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

By Jeremy Kreusch

Draw INTO the Page

Squiggly Window Art

A brief studio visit with James

Paper Dolls

MCA staff members demonstrate how to create paper dolls

Friendly Faces

H.C. Westermann, American, 1922–1981
Memorial to the Idea of Man If He Was an Idea, 1958
Pine, bottle caps, cast-tin toys, glass, metal, brass, ebony, and enamel
56 1/2 × 38 × 14 1/4 in. (143.5 × 96.5 × 36.2 cm)
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Susan and Lewis Manilow Collection of Chicago Artists, 1993.34
Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

by Corinne Mucha

Crankie Scrolls

by Myra Su

Recycled Balones

An informational illustration demonstrating how to make hand-made toy balls from recycled materials. — Drawings by Angella Kilabo. Graphic design by Rosario A. Aybar.

Video courtesy of Diana Gabriel

Family Resources Guide

Educators

Teacher Resource: Alien vs. Citizen

View Document

CURRICULUM: Writing Interpretive Labels

Lise Haller Baggesen refuseniks in the wild, 2017 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Photo: Federico del Vecchio. Courtesy of the artist.

The Long Dream highlights themes related to equity and social change and experiments with more equitable forms of exhibition-making. Rather than a single curator driving the creative decision-making for the exhibition, an interdepartmental team of staff worked together to bring the show into being. Throughout that already unusual process, staff looked for opportunities to challenge the traditional hierarchies of exhibition-making even further.

Youth

This resource reimagines gallery activities and exercises used in our Multiple Visit Program to help students practice speaking, listening, observing, and questioning skills at home.

Downloads

Speaking and Listening at Home