Chicago has long been a hotbed of creativity across the arts, yet its artists are still underrepresented in many museum collections outside their home city. This exhibition showcases the arrival of several major works by Chicago artists into the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s collection. New to Mia: Art from Chicago features approximately 30 paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints by artists such as Roger Brown (1941–1997), Sarah Canright (b. 1941), Dominick Di Meo (b. 1927), Miyoko Ito (1918–1983), Wadsworth Jarrell (b. 1929), June Leaf (b. 1929), Gladys Nilsson (b. 1944), Suellen Rocca (b. 1943), Karl Wirsum (b. 1939), and Ray Yoshida (1930–2009), among many others.

The exhibition also highlights conversations that resonate in Minneapolis: debates about whether to stay or leave the Midwest, the relationship between art educators and their students, the importance of art traditions in American cities outside New York City and their national impact, and the role of place in shaping new ways of seeing.