CHICAGO (May 20, 2025) — Since it was established in 1991, Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art served as a space for artists outside of the mainstream.
But now the Intuit Art Museum has a new name, tripled its space (from 6,000 square feet to 18,000) and re-invented itself as a true museum. The new space opens to the public on Friday and WTTW News got an early look inside and out.
“People are pretty blown away by what we did in this space,” president and CEO Debra Kerr told WTTW News, and she wasn’t exaggerating.
The building is completely transformed, and the spark for this transformation was a $5 million community development grant awarded to Intuit in 2022 as part of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Recovery Plan.
Since it was founded in 1991, Intuit has been a showcase for a diversity of self-taught artists — artists who typically work outside the mainstream and create what is sometimes called “outsider art.”
“There’s controversy with the term ‘outsider art,’” Kerr said. “Many people involved in the genre love the term, and some hate it. But our younger audiences often find the term ‘othering,’ and the explanation of it doesn’t always satisfy. Also artists don’t particularly want labels; they just want to be artists.”
About Intuit
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.
