Chicago
The Windy City boasts some of the country’s best art museums, but visitors don’t have to pay for museum admission to see many of Chicago’s most iconic pieces of artwork. Perhaps the most famous is Millennium Park’s “Cloud Gate,” also known affectionately as “The Bean,” a massive, abstract sculpture with a shiny surface that reflects and distorts the city skyline like a funhouse mirror. Millennium Park is also the site of “Crown Fountain,” which comprises two 50-foot-high glass-block towers that project images of more than 1,000 Chicago residents’ faces. Also of note is an unnamed sculpture by Pablo Picasso in Daley Plaza, as well as “Chicago,” a 39-foot mixed-media sculpture that features blue mosaic tiles.
Miami
In 2009, inspiration struck Miami resident Tony Goldman: The massive, windowless walls of the factories and warehouses in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood would make the perfect canvases for large murals. So he started the Wynwood Walls project, inviting graffiti and street artists to come create colorful works in the neighborhood. The movement took off: More than 50 artists from 16 countries have contributed to the Wynwood Walls project, which now covers more than 80,000 square feet of walls. Groups can tour the neighborhood to see the murals as well as the accompanying Wynwood Doors project, which turned a former dump lot into a neighborhood park dotted with “doors” covered in inventive graffiti.
Portland, Oregon
In a city as eclectic as Portland, Oregon, it’s no surprise that street art is a thriving movement. The Portland Street Art Alliance, founded in 2012, is a network of artists and academics that oversee more than 40 public art projects in neighborhoods around the city. For groups, the alliance offers tours that highlight some of the best local murals and educate visitors about the city’s art history and the cultural heritage on display in the artwork. A three-and-a-half-hour Experience Tour also includes a painting tutorial by local artists, who demonstrate the basics of graffiti and aerosol art. Participants also get a souvenir bag of handmade stickers created by local artists.
