<Tr> <Th> Public transit access </Th> <Td> CTA Bus routes: (6 and 28 line)' L' and Subway stations: Adams - Wabash: Brown Line Green Line Orange Line Pink Line Purple Line Monroe / State: Red Line Monroe / Dearborn: Blue Line Metra Train: Van Buren Street Station </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.artic.edu </Td> </Tr> <P> The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 and located in Chicago's Grant Park, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States . Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million guests annually . Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, is encyclopedic, and includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic . Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present cutting - edge curatorial and scientific research . </P> <P> As a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and one of the largest art history and architecture libraries in the country--the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries . </P>

When was the art institute of chicago founded