Culture and Education
The renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra presents a regular concert session at Symphony Center on Michigan Avenue and performs during the summer at Ravinia Park, north of the city in Highland Park. Outdoor concerts of symphonic and popular music are given in Grant Park each summer. The Civic Opera House is the home of the Lyric Opera, which brings noted international performers to the city each year during a season of grand opera. Professional plays and musicals are presented at several Loop and North Side theaters and suburban playhouses.
Chicago's major museums are located in the parks along the lakefront. The Art Institute, on Michigan Avenue, is one of the country's outstanding art museums, especially noted for its collections of French Impressionist paintings and Oriental art. At the south end of Grant Park are three prominent institutions—the Field Museum, John G. Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium.
Thousands of working scientific and technological exhibits are displayed in the Museum of Science and Industry in Jackson Park. The Chicago Historical Society, in Lincoln Park, maintains an extensive collection of material on the city, the state, and Abraham Lincoln. Also in Lincoln Park is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which emphasizes regional natural history. Other notable institutions include the Museum of Contemporary Art and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, which houses relics of early Near Eastern civilizations. Opened on April 19, 2009, The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in the Chicago suburb of Skokie shares the definitive history of the millions of Jews and others murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
The University of Chicago, one of the foremost private educational and research institutions in the nation, occupies a large campus on Chicago's South Side. Just west of the Loop is the Chicago campus of the state-supported University of Illinois. Northwestern University, a private institution with its main campus in suburban Evanston, has a campus in Chicago that includes professional and evening schools. Other private institutions in the city include Loyola, De Paul, Roosevelt, and Saint Xavier universities and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
There are several medical schools and law schools and a number of small liberal arts colleges, business and technical schools, and theological seminaries in the Chicago area. Among the many junior and community colleges are those of the Chicago City College system.
The Chicago Public Library system includes the Harold Washington Library Center and more than 75 branches. There are several outstanding research libraries in Chicago. Newberry Library specializes in the history, literature, and music of western Europe and the Americas. John Crerar, on the campus of the University of Chicago, is one of the largest scientific and technological libraries in the nation. Other prominent libraries are associated with the city's universities and museums.
