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    Fairbury Echoes

    5.0 (1 review)

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    Recommended Reviews - Fairbury Echoes

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    11 years ago

    Its a free trip back into Fairbury's past. They change the displays so please check back often. The staff will answer questions.

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    Funk Prairie Home Museum

    Funk Prairie Home Museum

    4.7(3 reviews)
    37.8 mi

    Another five star review. There are three museums to tour here: the house; the rock and gem museum;…read moreand apparently the farm tools. Figure an hour per museum; I only had time for two. The docent lives on-site and is passionate about the Funk family; there was almost too much information about the family (perhaps as I was touring the house with two Funk family members in town for a reunion). I've toured a lot of Victorian houses, but one of the things that's interesting about this one is the amount of innovation you'll see highlighted here. This starts in the garden, where there is a small power plant (the farm had electricity in the early 1900s, before parts of Chicago), and is continued as you learn to know the family, whether they be inventors of hybrid seeds, or rock afficianados. Unlike many houses, here you can get close to things; there are no velvet ropes or plastic barriers, except one to keep you out of the servants' stairs. So you can look close up at the hat pins or beaded bags on the dressers. Ask questions - you can't stump this docent. (We had a discussion about concrete and its use in the fence and the caretaker's building which was really quite interesting. If you have engineer friends, they will love this tour.) The rock museum features some truly impressive fossils, some of which you might be allowed to touch! There's a dragonfly fossilized in ash; coprolite (look it up), and dinosaur bone (apparently fairly common?). There's a whole wall of different types of calcite; giant gorgeous blue and purple fluorite specimens; lit-from-the-back beautiful agates and rubies in zoisite; and in the NEXT room (!) two or three cabinets of beautiful Chinese carved soapstone, and a collection of sleighs. The finale is a cabinet full of fluorescing rocks, including melted glass from a nuclear reactor. Made me wish this museum had a gift shop, though the docent will be happy to give you recommendations for good local rock shops. This is a really great museum hidden in the cornfields. Worth a trip - I drove two hours to get here, thinking I was coming for the rocks, but the house was almost/ just as good.

    Totally recommended - A wonderfully preserved house and grounds and our guide was able to bring the…read morewhole place to life with his insight and knowledge of the Funk family and their incredible history - and then in the Gem Museum we saw further dimensions to him as he walked us through this small fragment ( 20% ) of the massive and impressive collection gathered from all corners of the World.

    Krannert Art Museum

    Krannert Art Museum

    4.6(14 reviews)
    47.0 mi

    We've lived here for just over a year, but my husband and I had never visited the KAM…read more We stopped by here on a Saturday afternoon. It was a nice, quiet visit. Museum was well staffed with security. Superbly clean. It took us a little over an hour to walk through the various rooms. Several of the rooms were empty, awaiting new exhibits. I'd probably come back again when the academic year is in full swing. My favorite part of this visit was the Blue and White Ceramics exhibit they have on display. There are many great pieces of art to see, though. Ellnora Krannert was extremely generous and numerous pieces in the museum are thanks to her. I wouldn't recommend this museum to children under 13-14, unless the kids/tweens/teens are really into art, art history, etc. I just think the little ones would be bored. You can visit KAM's online calendar to see if they ever offer children's programming. (Head to the Spurlock Museum if you're on campus with little ones instead.) Highly recommend KAM to anyone else. We're very fortunate to have an art museum of this caliber in our community. Summertime is the perfect opportunity to explore these locations on campus. Checkout my other Champaign-Urbana museum reviews, too!

    Great museum on a terrific college campus. I know it doesn't get the attention the sports…read morefacilities do but it should. Check it out next time you are in C-U. It is a great way to recharge your batteries and let the power of art soothe your soul.

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    Krannert Art Museum
    Krannert Art Museum - Map 1

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    Fairbury Echoes - museums - Updated May 2026

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