The Museum of Contemporary Art has a back gate that opens onto Lake Shore Park. On the morning of Oct. 31, that gate is how you get into the museum's Sculpture Garden, with a leashed dog in a costume and a dog toy in your pocket. Halloween morning is one of two dates that hold most of the outdoor fall calendar on this block. The other is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Everything else this season either leads up to those two days or picks up after them.
That makes the calendar short. Today is Oct. 12. Between now and early November, the plaza, the garden and the park behind them host a farmers market, the 39th annual dog costume parade, a free museum evening and a new gallery performance. Then the outdoor half shuts down and the season moves inside the galleries and out to Navy Pier.
Four Tuesdays left on the MCA Plaza
The Streeterville Organization of Active Residents runs its farmers market on the MCA Plaza every Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The 2026 season started May 19. Counting from today, four market mornings are left:
- Tuesday, Oct. 13
- Tuesday, Oct. 20
- Tuesday, Oct. 27
- Tuesday, Nov. 3, the last market on the schedule
SOAR's pages give different end dates. The 2026 events page says the market runs through Nov. 3. The market page says Nov. 4, which is a Wednesday. The MCA's own event listing shows a market on Nov. 3 from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., so Nov. 3 is the best guess for the final Tuesday. Check SOAR's social channels the week before in case anything changes.
The 2026 vendor directory lists farms and bakers from around the region.
- Produce and orchard: Nichols Farm and Orchard, Bennett Farms, Joe's Blueberries, Meraki Urban Farm
- Plants: KlehmGrowers
- Bread and baked goods: Bennison's Bakery, Breadman Baking Company, Misericordia Hearts and Flour Bakery
- Coffee: Kikwetu Coffee
Since the market sits on the museum plaza, a Tuesday market trip can turn into a museum visit if you come back after work. More on that under Nov. 3.
Halloween morning, through the Lake Shore Park gate
The 39th Annual Streeterville Dog Halloween Party is on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 9 to 11 a.m. It takes place in the MCA Sculpture Garden, which the museum's listing also calls the Anne & John Kern Terrace Garden, and admission is free. The MCA's event page says cats are welcome too. It gives these instructions:
"Please enter through the museum's back gate, bordering Lake Shore Park, with your dog (or cat) and make sure to bring a dog toy so every dog gets a prize! Leashes required."
The Doggy Parade starts at 9:30 a.m. Ald. Brian Hopkins and Maureen Schulman judge it and give prizes for best-dressed animal. Since every dog that brings a toy gets a prize, the 9:30 start matters more than arriving at 10:45.
The party ends at 11. An hour later, Navy Pier begins the third of its Slightly Spooky Saturdays, which run from noon to 6 p.m. on Oct. 17, 24 and 31 and on Nov. 1, with family activities and outdoor movies at Polk Bros Park. That gives Oct. 31 an easy order. The garden parade takes the morning and the pier takes the afternoon, with Lake Shore Park in between.
Nov. 3 puts the whole block on one Tuesday
Nov. 3 is the one date when every piece of the MCA block's fall schedule falls on the same day.
| Time | What's happening | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Final scheduled SOAR Farmers Market on the MCA Plaza | Free to browse |
| 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. | MCA open its regular Tuesday late hours | $19 for Chicago-resident adults before 5 p.m. |
| 5 to 8 p.m. | Cally Spooner's Warm Up opens in the Sylvia Neil and Daniel Fischel Galleries | Free with museum admission |
| 5 to 9 p.m. | Free admission for Illinois residents | Free |
The numbers here are about the price of entry. According to the MCA's visit page, adult admission is $19 for Chicago residents and $22 for nonresidents. Students, teachers and visitors 65 and older pay $10 if they live in Chicago and $14 if they don't. Illinois residents get in free on Tuesdays from 5 to 9 p.m., and visitors 18 and under get in free every day. The Spooner performance is free with museum admission. On a Tuesday evening, Illinois residents pay nothing for that admission, so a new performance on its opening night costs nothing between 5 and 8 p.m.
The museum describes Warm Up as a dancer stretching and getting ready for a performance that never happens, stuck in continuous rehearsal. Rex Delafkaran and Tina Wang perform it. The work is part of Slow Dance, the exhibition that opened Sept. 12. It brings together six artists and includes performance activations inside the galleries.
Nov. 3 is a full day on one block. The market runs in the morning, the free evening starts at 5 and the performance opens the same night.
After the market closes, the block moves indoors
From Nov. 4, the plaza has no Tuesday market. What's left of the season runs on a longer schedule and mostly indoors.
The galleries keep going into spring. Slow Dance runs through March 14, 2027, and Warm Up is performed on select days from Nov. 3 through Dec. 20. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and stays open until 9 p.m. on Tuesdays. It is closed Mondays. That means every Tuesday through the winter offers the same free 5-to-9 window for Illinois residents. The market just won't be there anymore.
Marisol is on the ground floor of the building. The MCA lists Marisol Restaurant and Bar at 205 E. Pearson St., on the first floor. Marisol's site lists lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, and the restaurant describes itself as a neighborhood coffee counter as well. After the market season ends, that coffee counter is the closest place to stop on the block.
Lake Shore Park picks up the outdoor routine. The park beside the MCA's back gate covers 7.08 acres. The Chicago Park District lists tennis courts, a quarter-mile soft-surface running track, a playground, a full-size gym, a fitness center and meeting rooms. The fall program session runs from Sept. 8 through Dec. 13. It includes adult open basketball at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a youth cross-country and track-and-field class on Wednesdays. The Park District posts these schedules without dates, so check the park's page before you go. On Sept. 15 the Park District also posted a notice about phased Lakefront Trail repairs moving from the south end north, which matters if your run continues past the park to the lake.
Navy Pier takes over the holidays. The pier's Wintrust Winter WonderFest runs from Nov. 27, 2026, to Jan. 3, 2027. It is closed to the general public Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 for groups that booked ahead. If you're planning a visit with relatives in town after Thanksgiving, avoid those three days.
What's coming next to the blocks nearby
Two projects within a few minutes' walk of the MCA could change the area over the coming year, and they are at very different stages.
The first is a new rooftop. Eater Chicago's fall 2026 preview listed The Conservatory, a rooftop addition to The Hand & The Eye at 100 E. Ontario St., as expected to open this fall. The preview didn't give an exact date. It would join Altezza Rooftop at 101 E. Erie St., which Chicago Food Magazine reported open in June with Italian-inspired small plates, wood-fired pizza and cocktails.
The second is much bigger and was presented as a proposal. A City Plan Commission presentation dated Sept. 17, 2026, marked as a draft, describes a new Northwestern Memorial Healthcare tower of about 1.2 million square feet at 330 E. Erie St., designed by Perkins & Will. The application would use the city's Neighborhood Opportunity Fund bonus to raise the planned development's allowed floor area ratio, a measure of how much building fits on a lot, from 12.0 to 18.4. The draft projects construction from spring 2027 through 2031. It also proposes switching the eastern half of Huron Street from one-way westbound to two-way traffic. The presentation describes a proposal, and its construction timeline begins in 2027, so for this fall nothing changes on Erie or Huron.
That leaves the four market Tuesdays, Halloween morning at 9:30 and the free museum evening on Nov. 3 as this season's schedule on the block.
Whether a proposed tower on Erie and a possible two-way Huron Street affect what your Streeterville home is worth depends on your building and your block. The Larita Thomas Group follows these filings as they move through the city, and we can give you a free instant home valuation or set up a consultation to look at how the plans line up with your address.
