Oak Park Newspaper

THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH TASCHEN

Publisher's Wares Featured in Exclusive Display at Museum Shop

The Art Institute of Chicago and TASCHEN are pleased to announce a new landmark arrangement between the country's second-largest art museum and the publisher of best-selling art books. The Museum Shop of the Art Institute has recently opened a "shop within a shop" devoted exclusively to books from TASCHEN, the German art, architecture, and design publisher. The selection of TASCHEN titles carried in the Museum Shop will cover all areas of art, art history, photography, and design, and the arrangement will provide increased exposure for one of the Art Institute's best selling publishers while also allowing the museum to continue to carry the wide selection of art, architecture, and design books for which it is already known. The Art Institute is the first museum in the United States to enter into such a historic agreement with TASCHEN.

"Books from TASCHEN have been some of the best selling books in our Museum Shop," said David Thurm, Chief Operating Officer of the Art Institute of Chicago. "It certainly made sense for us to pursue an arrangement that allowed us to prominently feature their titles and make clearly visible to customers the place where they can find the extremely popular TASCHEN titles within our Shop. We are very excited to be the first American museum to partner with TASCHEN in this innovative way, and we look forward to TASCHEN flourishing even further in our retail spaces."

"In a city with a traditionally strong and vibrant art scene such as Chicago, I could not think of a better place than the Art Institute to start a new kind of partnership," says publisher Benedikt Taschen. "I am happy and excited to take our relationship to the next level."

TASCHEN will occupy approximately 25% of the floor and wall space devoted to books in the Art Institute's Museum Shop at 111 South Michigan Avenue, forming a "shop within a shop" exclusively carrying TASCHEN titles. Discussions are also underway for a similar arrangement in the Art Institute's Modern Shop in the two-year-old Modern Wing of the museum. The Art Institute will continue to offer titles from other publishers.

About TASCHEN

TASCHEN, founded in a small comic shop in 1980, is a worldwide art publisher specializing in books on art, architecture, design, fashion, film, travel, and the odd sexy book thrown in for good measure. Since TASCHEN's inception 31 years ago, the goal has always been to make the greatest books in the world (and indeed, Wallpaper Magazine has called TASCHEN books "the most exquisite books on the planet"). Whatever the subject and whatever the price--from $10 to $10,000--TASCHEN strives to produce, design, and package each of their books beautifully and uniquely. Starting in 2001, TASCHEN began opening branded stores in cities around the world, which carry the full range of TASCHEN's publications. There are now 11 TASCHEN flagship stores worldwide with number 12 opening in Amsterdam in fall of 2011. From the game-changing "Basic Art Series" books for $9.99, to the recent release of the Collector's Edition tome, Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs limited to 750 copies, numbered and signed by Sir Paul McCartney, TASCHEN is one of the only companies on the planet that can truly say it has something for everyone. This partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago will mark the first time that TASCHEN has entered into a partnership of this kind with an American museum.

About the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is a world-renowned art museum housing one of the largest permanent collections in the United States. An encyclopedic museum, the Art Institute collects, preserves, and displays works in every medium from all cultures and historical periods as well as hosts special exhibitions. With a collection of more than 260,000 art works and artifacts, the museum has particularly strong holdings in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, early 20th century European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, Japanese prints, and photography. The museum just completed the largest expansion in its 130-year history, the internationally acclaimed Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano. The Modern Wing features the latest in green museum technology and 264,000 square feet dedicated to modern and contemporary art, photography, architecture and design, and new museum education facilities.

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