Its been more than 10 years since I last saw the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, but the awe they inspired, still remains with me. Each of those settings successfully blurs the line between reality and make believe…if you saw only a photo of them,
you’d never know they were miniatures.
The Guild Study Program being held in Chicago this coming October, will give those in attendance, a chance to see the Thorne Rooms up close and personal, with a guided tour given by Thorne Rooms curator, Mican Morgan. Mican has been the working with and caring for the Thorne Rooms for many years, and will be sharing with program participants, things that the average museum going will never see. Nestled in several of the rooms sit the original inspirations
for the projects the Chicago Study Program participants will be working to replicate. The classes represent a variety of mediums and techniques, with painting, furniture construction and upholstery, model-making and the additive process of
carving, wherein modeling material is used to build up the object you are replicating instead of being cut away. As with most IGMA educational programs, teachers will be IGMA Artisan and Fellow members with many years of teaching experience behind them.
Classes will be held at the Club Quarters Hotel in downtown Chicago and tuition includes 18 hours of instruction, a tour of the Thorne Rooms as well as a walking tour of downtown Chicago, Friday night’s reception and dinner and Monday’s graduation luncheon. Arrangements have been made with the hotel for discounted rooms for program participants, making this the perfect opportunity for a visit to Chicago with a wonderful learning opportunity thrown in for good measure, or vice versa!