We’re on our third fake out spring (conservatively), so you know what that means: summer is fast approaching, even on days it doesn’t feel like it. Someday, we’ll want to spend more hours outside than in and be on the lookout for divertissements that fit the bill.

When that day comes, we’ve got you covered. Below, our summer museum highlights, some of which you can even enjoy in the great outdoors:

Ah, summer in Hyde Park: After picking up a fresh tan (or sunburn) at Promontory Point, mosey toward the recently re-christened Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly known as the Oriental Institute) to check out “Artifacts Also Die,” an examination of threatened antiquities in modern-day Iraq. The brave of heart can follow it up with “Dog Fight: The Animal Experimentation Debate in 20th-Century Chicago” a few blocks away at the Joseph Regenstein Library, recounting the University of Chicago’s role in arguing in favor of live experiments on dogs abandoned in city pounds.

• “Artifacts Also Die,” Tuesdays through Sundays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Aug. 27 at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 1155 E. 58th St.; suggested admission fee $10 adults and $5 children; isac.uchicago.edu
• “Dog Fight: The Animal Experimentation Debate in 20th-Century Chicago,” Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., except Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. through Sept. 1 at Special Collections Research Center, Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th St.; free admission, the public can access the Special Collections Research Center exhibitions via the visitor’s center; lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/exhibits

What’s new at the Art Institute: As usual, Chicago’s largest art museum offers an embarrassment of riches this summer. Already on view: an homage to the Parisian suburbs of Asnières, which inspired modernists like Van Gogh; filmmaker Margaret Honda’s transformation of the Modern Wing’s Griffin Court skylight; selections from queer photographer Peter Hujar’s pioneering career; and an assemblage of ghoulish Japanese prints. Still to come are spotlights on Ellsworth Kelly’s portrait drawings and Spanish Mexican surrealist Remedios Varo’s paintings. Thursdays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays through Mondays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; admission free to $32.

• “Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape,” through Sept. 4, $10 additional exhibit ticket is required.
• “Double Feature with Short Subject,” through Sept. 4; for quickest access, enter via Modern Wing entrance, 159 E. Monroe St.
• “Peter Hujar: Performance and Portraiture,” through Oct. 9.
• “Ghosts and Demons in Japanese Prints,” through Oct. 15.
• “Ellsworth Kelly: Portrait Drawings,” July 1 through Oct. 23.
• “Remedios Varo: Science Fictions,” July 29 through Nov. 27; for quickest access, enter via Modern Wing entrance.

A big birthday year: The Museum of Science and Industry’s major marquee event this year might be its Pompeii exhibition, open through the summer, but the museum also celebrates a big milestone on June 19: its 90th birthday. Don’t miss the temporary exhibition marking the occasion, featuring an artifact from each decade of the museum’s history. Daily 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.; general admission is $26 for adults, $15 for children.

• “Pompeii: The Exhibition,” through Sept. 4, additional admission is $18 for adults and $14 for children
• “90 & Beyond: Our Stories, Your MSI,” through May 2024

Bearing witness: Anne Frank may have penned the most famous diary to survive the Holocaust, but hers was far from the only one. A journal kept by 14-year-old Rywka Lipszyc, documenting life in the Łodz Ghetto, is the focus of this exhibition at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. Lipszyc was later imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen; agonizingly, she lived to see the latter’s liberation but likely died in a German hospital just weeks later. “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Łodz Ghetto,” Wednesdays through Mondays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sept. 24 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, 9603 Woods Dr., Skokie; free to $18; ilholocaustmuseum.org

Wood you look at that?: The Chicago Architecture Center has an optimistic and surprising answer to our climate-change scaries: the future of urban development just might be built in wood. Mass timber, a superstrong engineered composite wood, generates fewer carbon emissions during production than steel and concrete and partially absorbs greenhouse gasses. (By the way, if you’re worried about an 1871 redux, mass timber is apparently quite fireproof.) Sponsored by the Softwood Lumber Board, this exhibition is pretty, shall we say, invested in its sales pitch, and some have argued the deforestation necessitated by mass timber’s large-scale production undermines any potential benefits. But at this point, isn’t anything worth a shot? “Reframed: The Future of Cities in Wood,” daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 29 at the Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E. Wacker Dr.; free to $14; architecture.org

Speaking of climate change: Next month, E(art)H Chicago, an initiative by the Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Foundation, unveils 12 public artworks raising awareness about environmental justice. You’ll find them all over the city from Albany Park to Hegewisch, where they will remain for at least a year. But the real limited-time offer is two jam-packed weeks of events marking the occasion, from site-specific dance performances to documentary screenings. Events run June 3-17 at various locations; public artwork details and full lineup at earthartchicago.org

Through the eyes of immigrants: While the old saying that Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw isn’t true — and probably hasn’t been for decades — the city’s reputation for nurturing tight-knit, plentiful Polish enclaves doubtlessly precedes it. The Chicago History Museum acknowledges this legacy with a new exhibition documenting two centuries of Polish life in the city. “Back Home: Polish Chicago,” Tuesdays through Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sundays noon to 5 p.m. through June 2024 at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St.; free to $19; chicagohistory.org

An architect ahead of his time: If you’ve never been to Paris but walked down Michigan Avenue, you already know the work of Hector Guimard. Synonymous with the art nouveau movement, the architect and designer dreamed up the Paris Métro’s iconic cast-iron entrances, with a local copycat adorning the Metra stairway at Michigan and Van Buren. (Does that make it the Métra?) The Driehaus Museum hosts the first American retrospective of “le style Guimard” in more than 50 years, featuring 100 furniture, jewelry, metalwork, ceramic and textile pieces, plus Guimard’s own drawings. “Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism,” Wednesdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays and Sundays 11. a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 22 through Nov. 5 at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, 40 E. Erie St.; admission free to $20; driehausmuseum.org

Overlooked no more: The first hula dancers to arrive in Chicago performed at the 1893 World’s Fair, held the same year the Field Museum was founded. But, like other non-Western participants treated as sideshow attractions during that fateful event, practitioners of this Native Hawaiian oral and movement tradition remain chronically misunderstood. “Chicago’s Legacy Hula,” a Field Museum exhibition exploring generations of hula in the city, offers a corrective. If you visit the Field Museum later in the summer, be sure to save time for the latest iteration of “The Changing Face of Science,” a series celebrating scientists underrepresented in their fields. This time, the spotlight’s on Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, the Field’s associate curator of fossil reptiles and the “punk rock paleontologist” studying the mysterious holes in Sue the T. rex’s skull. Daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Field Museum, 1400 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.; general admission $18-$30.

Larger than life, among the leaves: Cleveland-based artist Olga Ziemska unveils the biggest show of her career at the Morton Arboretum just in time for Memorial Day weekend. And we really do mean big: Ziemska constructs five towering sculptures from tree branches and other organic materials collected on the Arboretum’s grounds, inspired by its similarity to the landscapes she grew up around in Poland. “Of the Earth,” through spring 2025, daily 7 a.m. to sunset at the Morton Arboretum, 4100 IL-53, Lisle; general admission $9-$17; mortonarb.org

Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.