It`s not true that holiday gifts are only as clever as the giver. Choose well and they can be smarter than you are. Museum stores offer cultured consumers a great way to upgrade your offerings.
Where else but at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture can you buy authentic Lithuanian Christmas ornaments for $6 each or, at a specialized center like the Museum of Holography, get a surrealistic hologram watch for $85?
Besides providing a diversity of items, museum stores are major assets to their institutions. At both the Museum of Science and Industry and the Art Institute about 12 percent of the profits gets funneled back into the museums` operating budgets.
Increasingly museum stores are big business, if only because culture and commerce follow one from the other. Indeed the stores are beginning to outnumber their museums. The Art Institute recently opened branches at 900 N. Michigan Ave. and in Oakbrook Center; the Field Museum has expanded its outlets to the Ford City mall on the Southwest Side. It makes sense to spread the stores beyond the museums: figures indicate that at least 30 percent of visitors to the Art Institute come there just to shop. (Like most museums, the store does not require an admission fee; the one store that does is at the Field Museum.)
But if the store is increasingly crucial to a museum`s financial security the holiday season is just as vital to the store. Gearing up for the gift rush is no small undertaking: anticipating demand, the Chicago Historical Society annually doubles its stock of merchandise every December.
The larger museums, such as the Art Institute, even offer their own custom goods, exclusives like the Institute`s popular ”Art” umbrella and tote set ($39.95 per set) or a ”Carolers” mug set, including paper plates and matching napkins ($35.85).
Not surprisingly, it`s the smaller museums with their specialized holdings that offer items you won`t find elsewhere. For instance, the gift shop in the DuSable Museum of African American History (740 E. 56th Pl.;
312-947-0600) boasts such intriguing objects as Kente cloth strips ($25-$280), Jamaican dolls ($6.50-$12), Kwanzaa books ($5.95), African sculptures
($60-300) and a cowrie shell belt from Nigeria ($30).
Not always considered a museum, the Chicago Cultural Center, the former public library (78 E. Washington St.; 312-744-1424), is not, contrary to rumor, empty. Between now and Dec. 21 it offers ”Gallery 37,” an exhibition of original artworks by student artists which features hand-painted notecards and masks, colorful banners, totems and mystical ”rain sticks,” ranging from $10 to $500.
Another special-interest locale, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, offers unique gift certificates that will allow the recipient and a guest to star in and take home a videotape copy of their appearance in the museum`s simulated ”NewsCenter” broadcast.
Whether the museums are vast or concentrated, their emporia reflect their engaging diversity. Here are selected gifts you can buy at a baker`s dozen of area museums. They`ll prove just how particular you are:
Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.; 312-322-0300. Gift store hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays; Fridays to 8 p.m.
– Stellar globe that details constellations with names and positions
($36.95).
– Pewter belt buckle featuring Challenger space shuttle ($8.50).
– Celestron C60 telescope, at $160 the cheapest in its field.
– Glow-in-the-dark constellation jacket: wear the night sky for $60.
– Universe calendar in color charts the skies for 1992 ($10).
Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street; 312-443-3600. Gift store hours: 10:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; to 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Saturdays; noon-5:15 p.m. Sundays.
– Christmas card featuring Childe Hassam`s ”View of the Art Institute of Chicago” ($10 for a box of ten).
– ”Create-A-Calendar 1992” allows children to use their imaginations and attach each month`s picture to a display frame ($14.50).
– Red and black fish mobile from Denmark ($22).
– Set of four anodized aluminum coasters ($45).
– Fan-shaped marcasite earrings ($120).
– Set of three Italian-glass architectural paperweights of handcast crystal ($60).
Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd.; 312-582-6500. Gift store hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays-Thursdays; Friday to 8 p.m.
– Lithuanian costumed dolls (from $9.95).
– Hand-etched cystal with Lithuanian motifs (from $13).
– Baltic amber jewelry (from $15).
Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 N. Clark St.; 312-871-2668. Gift store hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
– Little rubber dinosaurs and insects, great stocking stuffers (25 cents).
– Handmade sterling-silver jewelry depicting various animals ($160).
– Recycled paper-making kit for children ($25).
– Brass animal candleholders in Verdigris and natural finishes ($26-$45). – Six-foot-long rubber snake ($7.50).
Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street at North Avenue; 312-642-4600. Gift store hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. – Antique toys including Jacob`s ladders, tops, whirligigs ($3-$10).
– Metal-enameled advertising signs ($15-$20).
– Nicholas II, an oval-shaped kaleidoscope ($40).
– Sandcast brass trivet with Thomas Jefferson cypher ($27.50).
Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr.;
312-922-9410. Gift store hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
– Clay vessel made by potter ”Frog Woman” from Hopi-Tewa Indian tribe
($4,500).
– Moon mask from Ghana ($135).
– Eskimo carved soapstone depicting traditional scenes ($35).
– Hobby horse from Mexico ($76).
– Ceramic blue-and-green Saki jug from Japan ($298).
Museum of Broadcast Communications, 800 S. Well St.; 312-987-1500. Gift store hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; noon-5 p.m. Sundays.
– T-shirts promoting your favorite soap opera or TV series (”Young and Restless,” $15).
– Foot-high Bozo doll, exclusive to museum ($16).
– TV coffee mugs (Fred Flinstone, $10).
Museum of Contemporary Art, 237 E. Ontario St.; 312-280-2660. Gift store hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays.
– Architectural house numbers ($8).
– Porcelain keepsake boxes by XAICO ($34).
– Suede-bound photo album ($43).
– Mustachioed reindeer nose ($1.25).
– Boxed set of notecards bearing leaf-themed photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe ($10.95).
– Glass ornaments by Shatter Glass Group ($16-$36).
Museum of Holography, 1134 W. Washington Blvd.; 312-226-1007. Gift store hours: 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays.
– Computer-generated abstract art hologram ($245).
– Hologram of ”Girl Drinking Wine” ($5).
– Austrian crystal pyramids with mounted holograms ($50).
Museum of Science and Industry, 57th St. and Lake Shore Dr.;
312-684-1414. Gift store hours: 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday; to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, holidays.
– Insect-eating plants you can grow in a test tube ($3.50).
– Ship in a bottle kit ($8).
– ”Sesame Street” plush dolls ($18).
– Life-size anatomically correct skeleton ($396).
– M.C. Escher jigsaw puzzle ($23).
Shedd Aquarium, 1200 S. Lake Shore Dr.; 312-939-2426. Sea Shops hours:
9:30 a.m.-5:45 p.m. daily.
– Large, plump penguin ($19).
– Sea otter clutching crystal in its paws ($12.50).
– Abalone pierced earrings ($12).
– ”Whales and Dolphins” by Vic Cox, 100 color plates ($16).
– Aluminum wind chimes featuring sharks and dolphins ($16).
Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave.; 312-702-0200. Gift store hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays.
– Children`s Advent calendars ($11-$15).
– Hiroshige desk calendar featuring Japanese woodblock prints ($10).
– Beatrix Potter books and cards ($10).
– Tiffany desk calendars, address books and notecards ($10-$15).
Terra Museum of American Art, 664 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-664-3939. Gift store hours: 12 a.m.-8 p.m, Tuesdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays.
– Terra Museum calendar, reproducing museum`s best-loved canvases ($11).
– Audubon notecard set ($10).
– Framed prints of nine of museum`s most popular paintings ($29-$50).
– Reusable gift bags ($3.50-$4).
– Posters ($10-$15).
