This was our first experience with Context Tours, and it was exceptional. Sally guided us through the Art Institute of Chicago, highlighting the most important works and explaining their significance with deep background stories for each piece. She was attentive to our physical limitations and, while primarily focusing on our interests, also introduced us to works just outside our scope, broadening our perspectives. It’s evident that she has a lifelong passion for great art, and her infectious enthusiasm truly shines through. I wish we could take her with us to every world-class art museum we plan to visit. Thank you, Sally, for making the Art Institute the highlight of our time in Chicago. Based on our Chicago experience, we enthusiastically recommend Context Tours to others and plan to engage them again as we travel to other destinations worldwide.

My brother-in-law, husband, and I took the Art Institute of Chicago Tour with Sally. We were pleased we had selected the skip-the-line ticket option because that allowed Sally to take us immediately to exhibits and artifacts that would later be flooded with throngs of people on the Memorial Day weekend. We were most pleased with the narrative structure of Sally’s tour, which was built around major Chicago collectors and donors to the Art Institute. We learned about the purpose of the building when it was constructed for the Columbian Exposition, its evolution into the Art Institute, and how the collection was built. Sally was impeccably organized and well-prepared. She carried a binder containing documents she had curated specifically for the tour and used them efficiently throughout. Her knowledge is prodigious, and she demonstrated it as we moved efficiently from painting to painting, style to style, artist to artist. She provided us with what felt like a graduate seminar without being didactic. Along the way, she helped us see differences in the various schools of art in terms not only of technique but also in terms of content. She didn’t waste a single moment of the available time. Throughout, she referenced information that she had given us earlier in the tour that allowed us to follow a complex verbal and visual narrative that wove together the history of the museum and its collections, the key players in building that collection, and art history. Although the tour was whirlwind, it never felt rushed. We saw the jewels of the collection as well as pieces that were less famous but demonstrated important techniques and evolutions in style within the work individual artists and the influences of artists on one another. We learned to compare and contrast styles, to recognize hallmarks of particular artists, and the history of individual paintings. The tour was invigorating, and we were grateful that we had Sally to guide the experience.

Wonderful tour. Joe made sure to address our interests and more. He shared interesting insights along the way. The tour certainly helped us make the most of our 3 hours.