The Elmhurst Fine Arts and Civic Center Foundation was formed in 1974 to create a community for visual arts. The Foundation formed the Elmhurst Art Museum in 1980. The Museum was granted the use of two rooms in the Elmhurst Community Center and for sixteen years exhibited exclusively Illinois artists.

Fopr years the Elmhurst Art Museum build a reputation as an advocate for the community. In 1990, the Museum became purchased the McCormick House, one of only three homes in the United States designed and built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The house was purchased in 1991 and the firm of DeStefano + Partners was retained to design the museum that would pay tribute to Mies.