Lecture: An Architectural History of the Franke Reading Room
About the event
Join us for a glimpse into the 125-year history of the Franke Reading Room, one of the museum’s most unique spaces. Constructed in 1901 as an addition to the Art Institute’s Michigan Avenue building, the room has served as home base for the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, the Art Institute Archives, and the museum’s academic programs.
With this talk, Jill Bugajski, executive director of the museum's Research Center, will explore the evolution of the libraries, the layered histories of the building, and the dramatic changes—some public, others hidden from view—that have unfolded in the reading room’s design across more than a century.
After the talk, there will be an open house in the reading room offering visitors the opportunity to study its architectural features in person, view extraordinary items from the collections of the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and Art Institute Archives, and chat with Research Center staff.
about the speaker
Jill Bugajski is the executive director of the Research Center at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2020, she has led the evolution of the Franke Reading Room as a hub for pathbreaking research and scholarly training. Alongside partners in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and Art Institute Archives, Jill oversees the Research Center’s diverse collection of more than five million research resources: books, documents, artworld ephemera, artist-designed works, periodicals, and digital tools.
Over her 16 years at the museum, Jill has served as the museum’s inaugural Mellon Academic Curator, Executive Director for Academic Engagement and Research, and as a curatorial researcher. She earned a PhD from Northwestern University, an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and a BA from DePaul University, all in Art History.
If you have any questions about programming, please reach out to museum-programs@artic.edu.
Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email access@artic.edu.
