IIT's Mies van der Rohe Society Celebrates 90th Anniversary of the Bauhaus

Chicago, IL — January 13, 2009 —

In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus and in honor of the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv, the home of more Bauhaus architecture than any city in the world, the Mies van der Rohe Society at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), in cooperation with the German National Tourist Office, the Thuringia Tourist Board, the Weimar Tourist Board and the Israel Ministry of Tourism will host a press conference and breakfast reception from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, January 29, in IIT's S. R. Crown Hall, 3360 S. State Street, Chicago, to share information about special anniversary exhibitions and events that are being organized throughout 2009 in both Chicago and Germany.

The principles of the Bauhaus, a design school in Germany that existed from 1919 to 1933, were brought to Chicago by László Moholy-Nagy, a leading designer at the Bauhaus who became the founder and director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago (now IIT Institute of Design) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a modernist architect and educator who served as director of the Bauhaus before moving to Chicago to head IIT's School of Architecture from 1938 to 1958. During Mies' tenure, he designed 18 buildings on the campus, including his masterpiece, Crown Hall, a National Historic Landmark.

Throughout the year, the Mies van der Rohe Society at IIT and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) will celebrate the anniversary of the Bauhaus by organizing exhibitions probing the presence of the Modern today. This year-long program, called "Living Modern Chicago," will tell the Chicago chapter in the international story of modernism, looking at modernism's continuing ideals of inter-disciplinary innovative creative work intended to make a better world, and the legacy of the modern as a way of teaching and learning in both the academy and public realm. The first exhibit in "Living Modern Chicago," "Languages of Vision," a collection of works by the late artist and educator György Kepes, will be on display from January 15 through February 27 in the Kemper Room Art Gallery of the Galvin Library, 35 West 33rd St., Chicago, on IIT's Main Campus. For more information about "Living Modern Chicago," please contact Justine Jentes at jentes@iit.edu or 312.567.7146.

Seating for the breakfast reception is limited. Those interested in attending are asked to respond by January 19th to Tanya Pantone at tpantone@iit.edu or 312.567.6930. Optional guided tours through Crown Hall will be offered to those interested at the end of the breakfast reception from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Please indicate such interest when responding.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.