There are dozens of individual works on display in the halls, reading rooms, and stacks of our central library. Highlights include an Ed Paschke painting, Marisol Escobar's "Women Leaning" wooden sculptures, a ceiling installation by Nancy Spero, and a large mural chronicling the life of Mayor Harold Washington.

The Cultural Center comes closest to major museum curation among the points on this map. Its mission is to feature large rotating exhibits with a bent toward the local in some of the building's grandest spaces--spaces built for books 115 years ago. Current exhibitions include Chicago street art, figurative ceramic sculpture, and rock-and-roll photography.

Legions of artists display at O'Hare, and much of it is invisible to the harried traveler. Hint: look up. The terminals' overhead clearance is where the largest, most transformative works are found including abstract resin chandeliers, the famed neon light display in the long tunnel between terminals, and a dozen murals brightening up a sterile corridor in the international terminal. There's also an ever-rotating selection of 2-D wall art exhibits.

The city's own free and public arts center includes gallery space and three site-specific sculptural installations: an elaborate kinetic sculpture by Christopher Furman; a theater marquee and box office by Jeffrey Goldstein; and a mosaic relief by Phil Schuster and Mirte. Other art is rotating.

This green technology educational institute in Humboldt Park has a small permanent art display and a rotating seasonal series of installations by Ann Wiens. It's a pretty sweet facility to boot, with LEED Platinum certification and sprawling gardens.

The landmark Goldblatt's office building at Chicago & Ashland was renovated a decade ago and now houses city departments. If you're all tapped out on Harold Washington, the Goldblatt's branch library is another good bet for public art. A few installations are to be had at any given point, chief among them Tony Tasset's "Snow Sculpture for Chicago".

Artist: Alexander CalderDate: 1974About: This grand-scale geometric mobile installation hangs from the ceiling of the Sears Tower's Wacker lobby. The multiple small pieces move continuously and independently, suggesting the infinite energy of the cosmos, its ceaseless expansion, and its hurtling planetary bodies. The subject of a tug-of-war b/w outgoing Sears and incoming Willis, the sculpture has mercifully remained in place.

Artist: Frank StellaDate: 1993About: This is one massive abstraction, built of several small metal sculptures coarsely joined by the pouring of molten aluminum over the structure. The Town-Ho’s Story is part of Stella’s Moby Dick series, the novel from which the name derives.

Artist: Sir Anthony CaroDate: 1987About: This large-scale Bronze abstract sculpture alludes to musical instruments. It occupies the lobby of a 40-story Philip Johnson-designed office tower.

Artist: John BannonDate: 2004About: From the Chicago Public Art Project: "Twenty-two neon tubes, suspended in the atrium of CTA Headquarters, simultaneously describe three images celebrating four different aspects of the transit authority. When viewed from below, Transit depicts the CTA train and bus system maps. Looking west from the lobby mezzanine, an elevated train appears to depart a station, while the north-facing image is a CTA bus. The title, Transit, reflects both the subject matter and the action the viewer takes to see the three neon images."