Zoe Ryan, the enthusiastic and talented design curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, gave me a brief tour of the department’s new space in the Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing the other day. She and her colleagues have put together some terrific displays of functional art. I especially loved the exhibit of iconic seating by Ron Arad, Marcel Wanders, Konstantin Grcic, along with lighting by Ingo Mauer, among others (see it ’til January). Along with gorgeous flatware in one case were elegantly simple, reversible drinking glasses by an under-the-radar Chicagoan, Felicia Ferrone (more on her in the next issue of Chicago Home + Garden).

-JAN PARR