A museum of wonder!

Well, actually, it’s a WNDR Museum – drop the vowels in “wonder”. It’s an interactive, one-way art museum, where you proceed along a marked path from entrance to exit. Technically, it’s one of four: there are locations in San Diego, Boston, and Seattle, as well as the one we visited in Chicago.

Admission is purchased online – if you arrive, as we did, without tickets, there’s a QR code to scan where you can select the date and time for your tickets. As you’re admitted, you also have the opportunity to purchase drinks to take with you along the path. There are also QR codes along the path to explain how to interact with some of the exhibits. We scanned a couple, but didn’t feel a need to scan every one. Here are some of the photos I took in the time we explored the museum.

  • "Colorbox" - colorful wall art
  • A wall of shimmering sequins with a fish shaped in it by a museum visitor
  • Art on the wall that reacts using a video camera to the viewer's movement
  • A giant head with colorful strands of light flowing out of the top and into various spots on the wall
  • A visually reactive floor that responds to people moving across it
  • A painted mirror with background art
  • Stacks of cubes with rotating lights inside

In addition to the exhibits, several of which were reactive to movement of one sort or another, there were two poets stationed in the museum who were writing poems on the spot for whatever topic you threw at them (they had tip jars), and a magician near the end performing some stunning sleight of hand (no tip jar there). And, of course, a gift shop.