Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art

Lapidary Art. What in the world is that? You'll find an amazing museum tucked in the western suburb of Oak Brook that is totally devoted to it, The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art. Lapidary art is the art of cutting and polishing stone. Sounds beautiful right? Oh you have no idea!

The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art just opened up in their new space the fall of 2019. They moved from their long time home in downtown Elmhurst to Oak Brook. I finally got a chance to visit the new since we were having a KDRMA board meeting there. The new Lizzadro Museum is tucked between Rt. 83 and I-88 by the Oak Brook Park District. It is really tucked back off 83 so make sure you're paying attention to your GPS, although the building is super easy to spot. They have fantastic easy to read signage on the building. 

In the mid-20th century lapidary art became a huge fad. People were starting clubs along with collecting and polishing stones at home. This is where the found of the museum Joseph Lizzadro started his love of the beautiful stones. He started his collection with a small Chinese jade hanging vase and it just grew from there. It grew so much that he built an entire museum for it in 1962. 

When you step into the new exhibits it's hard to decide what to look at first since everything is so amazingly beautiful. They take you through different rocks, minerals, gemstones and even fossils!

I think the dioramas (three photos above) might be some of my favorite pieces in the collection. They are scenes with different animals carved from beautiful gemstones. There is even a diorama with dinosaurs! They were originally created for children but it's easy to see how everyone can enjoy these beautiful works of art. The backgrounds were painted by local Elmhurst artist, David S. Burnside. You should hop over to the Lizzadro's website and see the quick video about the making of the dioramas.

 

One of my favorite parts in any museum is seeing new details every time I visit. The Lizzadro is definitely a museum that delivers on exquisite details! From the tiny pieces to the huge pieces there is so much to see time and time again in this west suburban gem! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! You can also join me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. In addition to life-capades and doing it for yourself, I love all things 'real life' so use the hashtag #museumfanatic on social media so I can see your beautiful unstaged life. Oh and on the top of the side bar to your right, you can follow me on Bloglovin or on social media to be alerted to each new post!