Museum Hack: A New Way to Experience the Arts

One of the things that I love about living in the city is the accessibility of the arts and other major attractions: I just step outside my door and I'm a short walk, train, bus (or more likely, cab) ride away from some of the best theaters, zoos, and museums in the country. Just check out the "Chicago" tab above and I've documented dozens of cool things to do here in the Windy City, but that's not even scratching the surface! Our family and friends are scattered all over the country, so when they come to visit we have so much fun taking visitors who are new to the city to these places and experiencing them through new eyes. After 8+ years in the same city though, sometimes visiting the same museums again can feel a bit... tired. Don’t get me wrong—it’s amazing to be able to see Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte in person (and maybe even do your best Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane impression), but even that can lose its novelty after a handful of visits. Enter: Museum Hack.

Museum Hack aims to make a visit to the museum approachable, fast paced and anything but boring. Their "Renegade Museum Tours" are available at major museums in NYC, DC, San Francisco, and have received rave reviews from past tour attendees. And the great news for Chicagoans and their visitors is that Museum Hack is now hosting tours at the Art Institute of Chicago! Each two-hour "Un-Highlights" tour is unique to its Museum Hack tour guide to keep things entertaining for the group-- no two tours are alike. That means that even if you take a Museum Hack tour with every friend or family member that visits you, you’ll still never be bored! The tour guides share funny and scandalous stories about the art and artists (things that you'll never hear from an official museum docent), incorporate games like scavenger hunts and high school-style superlatives, and host photo contests so that tour members can compete for prizes.

In addition to their regular public tours, Museum Hack can also host a customized tour especially for you. They'll tailor a tour for any group-- large or small-- and have niche tours for everything from corporate team building (no trust falls here!) to bachelorette parties to date nights. Interactive team building games like “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and “Museum Clue” provide fun and unique (and not lame) ways for coworkers to bond with one another during these group outings. And they even host tours for small children (a.k.a. Little Hackers). I’m already looking for ways that I can introduce Hannah to some of these great Chicago attractions in the future and this would be such a fun way to experience the Art Institute with her (and her little friends) in a way that is accessible to even the smallest of visitors!

Interested in booking a Museum Hack tour for yourself? You can buy tickets here for museums in all 4 of the cities where Museum Hack currently operates.


Editor's Notes: All images c/o Museum Hack.
This post was sponsored by Museum Hack. Thanks for supporting the brands that support A Squared!