Disclaimer: I was able to partner with the WNDR Museum for the creation and sharing of this post. All opinions are my own.
Our family got to visit Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience located in the city’s West Loop neighborhood: the WNDR Museum.
The 10,000-square-foot museum at 1130 W. Monroe St. Chicago, IL 60607 is filled with interactive artworks by cutting-edge artists, collectives, technologists, designers, and makers.
WNDR is a non-traditional museum experience that invites guests of all ages to fully engage with the artworks and multi-sensory installations.
In May 2021, WNDR Museum was voted one of the top five immersive art experiences in the country by USA Today’s Reader Poll.
“WNDR is redefining the museum experience, and the local and national interest in WNDR proves a thirst for thrilling immersive and interactive technology. My roots in technology and entrepreneurship give me insight into the artistic beauty that can be created with the latest technology, and WNDR is a playground of possibility and a home for disruptive thinking and iconoclastic action. This is a multi-sensory experience, reflecting the joy of wonder itself.”
Brad Keywell, founder of WNDR.
WNDR Museum is home to the Midwest’s only Infinity Mirror Room by iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
As guests travel through WNDR, they are taken on a multi-dimensional journey in which they serve as an extension of each creator by interacting with various installations. Be transported to hyper-real environments with sight, sound and scent at FLUX Room by S̶A̶N̶T̶IA̶G̶O̶ X.
Text a word, phrase, or image to COLORWAVE by sosolimited and be awed by a unique animation of colorful light.
DJ a one-of-a-kind beat with hand motions through the touchless Lands installation by Sonde.
More than 20 installations awaken guests’ senses throughout WNDR’s mind-blowing experiences.
No two visits to WNDR Museum are the same. WNDR consistently curates its experience by leaning into cutting-edge technologies to enhance existing installations as well as adding new immersive experiences year-round.
WNDR Museum celebrated its February 2021 reopening with the debut of the acclaimed artist and social activist Keith Haring’s Untitled (FDR NY) #23 and #24 on display through WNDR
Museum’s front windows for the public to enjoy, as the artist intended.
“The public needs art, and it is the responsibility of a ‘self-proclaimed artist’ to realize the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for the few and ignore the masses… I am interested in making art to be experienced and explored by as many individuals as possible with as many different individual ideas about the given piece with no final meaning attached. The viewer creates the reality, the meaning, the conception of the piece. I am merely a middleman trying to bring ideas together.”
Keith Haring, Artist
Untitled (FDR NY) #23 and #24 was part of an expansive mural Haring made on the FDR Highway, Manhattan, New York in 1984. It was a unique continuous frieze created on a preexisting fence. Untitled (FDR NY) #23 and #24 are two sections of the mural that contain some of his iconic spray-painted animations that Haring used throughout his works.
We had a fantastic visit and hope to be back again soon!
You can find out more about WNDR and purchase tickets at: WNDRmuseum.com
