The Elmhurst Art Museum is a public art museum with over 15,000 square feet of exhibition space dedicated to contemporary and traditional art. The museum’s crown jewel is the McCormick House, one of only three residential designs by legendary architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the United States. Built in 1952 and restored and opened to the public in 2015, visitors can walk through this masterwork of modernist architecture. The museum hosts rotating exhibitions featuring regional, national, and international artists, along with educational programs for children and adults.
Origin Story
The Elmhurst Art Museum owes its existence to Eleanor King Hookham, a painter and educator who moved to Elmhurst in 1946 and spent five decades championing the vision of a public art museum for the community.
The organization was formally established in 1981, opening in a single room at Eldridge School before operating in borrowed spaces for years. The breakthrough came in 1994 when the McCormick House, Mies van der Rohe’s 1952 modernist residence, was relocated to a site on Cottage Hill Avenue. A permanent 15,000 square foot museum building followed in 1997, and the McCormick House was meticulously restored and opened to the public in 2015.
Eleanor King Hookham passed away in 2003, but the museum she spent a lifetime building continues to grow, anchored by one of the most significant residential structures in American architecture.
