February 11, 2026 – The Intuit Art Museum (IAM) in Chicago, one of the leading institutions in the United States devoted to self-taught artists, has received two important gifts of art that will expand its collection by 61 works.
The IAM (formerly known as Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art) was founded in Chicago in 1991 by a friendly group of aficionados and collectors with a simple goal of finding ways to exhibit work by self-taught artists. One of those early supporters was Jan Petry (1939–2024), a Chicago advertising executive who filled her home with outsider art. Petry bequeathed 47 works, some by anonymous artists—including an Odd Fellows carved wood staff dating from 1880—and others by Emery Blagdon, James Castle, Ulysses Davis, Charles Dellschau, William Hawkins, Martín Ramírez, Günther Schützenhöfer and Leopold Strobl.
A second gift of 14 works comes from the Los Angeles-based scholar Gordon W. Bailey’s collection of African American art. That trove includes works by Sam Doyle, Sybil Gibson, Roy Ferdinand and Mose Tolliver. Bailey, who has been gifting museums with works from his collection over the years, has long been associated with IAM despite living on the West Coast. His gift was in honour of IAM’s growth and the $10m expansion it completed last spring.
“Their gifts, which bring new artists’ stories into our galleries, strengthen our ability to serve and inspire the many communities who rely on our museum as a place of connection, creativity and discovery,” says Debra Kerr, the museum’s president and chief executive.She notes that the works donated by Petry will be shown in the gallery named after her in the upcoming exhibition Light is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry.
Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Intuit presents the work of self-taught artists—also known as outsider art. These artists typically work outside the mainstream and may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to a traditional path of art making. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audiences.
