This article is part of the Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on the art world’s expanded view of what art is and who can make it.
The yellow school bus on the rooftop, the jumble of slides and climbers, and the castle in the parking lot loudly hint that City Museum in downtown here isn’t a typical museum.
However, in what is a typical museum move, it’s growing an art collection. City Museum invites families to smile at, gawk over and sometimes climb on the art to appreciate it.
“It’s not about who we are,” Rick Erwin, the creative director, said of City Museum, where he usually works in a dark T-shirt and sneakers. “It’s about what we can provide.”
Since 2014, the museum has added about $3.4 million of contemporary art and Louis Sullivan-designed architectural pieces. It is adding more.
Children play “I Spy” with two glass-block works by Dustin Yellin, a Brooklyn…
