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Originally Posted by Baronvonellis
Ok, yea I suppose that's what they want to do. But the museum would be alot more visited if it was downtown. The Oriental Institute is a FREE museum with world class artifacts and the museums get very few visitors. Compared to the MOSI or the Field Museum there's barely a trickle of mostly local people that go there now. It just seems underutilized in Hyde Park. Lots of people that live in Chicago don't even know about it. It doesn't seem like they are doing a good job marketing it.
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Uh, I'm a member of the OI, and it is my favorite museum in the City, it is not free - there is a "suggested donation" of $5 for children and $10 for adults, or something of the like. I go there a few times a year, both for special, temporary exhibits (like the Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibit that ended in March) and just to see artifacts that I've seen dozens of times before, and also just to walk around the nearby university grounds. I think the location is really ideal, because the surroundings (U of C, Hyde Park) and all other museums nearby make it more accessible, frankly, than other better known museums in and around downtown. It's a small, specialized museum that doesn't garner a lot of attention, and that's ok, as lesser known places like the OI usually have the most wonderful treasures.