‘HOME’ RUN
Staci Boris opens her first exhibition as chief curator at Elmhurst Art Museum
Few Chicago art-world insiders are better known than Staci Boris. She has worked as a curator around the city since 1992, including a 12-year tenure at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and a short stint as director of the nowdefunct fair, Art Chicago.
In July, Boris, 46, took her first post away from the city’s downtown scene, becoming chief curator of the little-known Elmhurst Art Museum. Housed in a sleek 1997 modernist building designed by DeStefano + Partners of Chicago, it combines Mies van der Rohe’s 1952 McCormick House with a 4,000-squarefoot space devoted to showing contemporary art.
The first exhibition opens Saturday. Titled “Open House: Art About Home,” it features multimedia works by seven artists that explore the home as both reality and metaphor.
The Sun-Times spoke to Boris about her career and her recent move to Elmhurst. Her answers have been edited and compiled:
Attraction to the Elmhurst Art Museum: “When I walked in, I had no idea there was this incredible museum here and was surprised that I hadn’t known much about it prior to that. I was so impressed by the architecture itself, the gallery space, the tall ceilings. My mind just started to race, and I just thought there could be so many exciting things happening here.”
Switch to a suburban realm: “I have never worked in an institution that’s located in the suburbs, but because of the way the museum looks and the way it is organized, it feels like a museum that could be in the city center. It feels very cosmopolitan. It feels very serious in a way that I didn’t expect. I don’t think it
www. elmhurstartmuseum.org was a culture shock. I grew up in the suburbs. I understand the suburbs.”
Reaching out to multiple audiences: “I want people to come from Chicago and beyond Chicago. Having the McCormick House, one of three houses designed by Mies van der Rohe in the United States, is something that I think architectural enthusiasts and others would want