How can a campus art museum serve to facilitate creative, interdisciplinary collaboration?

This is the question that the Block Museum’s Curatorial Associate, Essi Ronkko and Museum Director, Lisa Corrin recently discussed at the 2018 Northwestern University Best Practices Forum2018 Northwestern University Best Practices Forum.  The forum showcases innovative and valuable practices that have been successfully implemented across the university.  The Block’s presentation reviewed the multidisciplinary collaborations developed around the exhibition project, “Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt” presented at the Block Museum during Winter 2018. The exhibition’s success offers a case study that illustrates how museums can facilitate work across schools and foster capacity for bold thinking and innovation

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Northwestern’s Best Practices Forum serves as a practical way for leaders across the University to share their own specific experiences and demonstrate practical examples of successful technology, process, and people solutions in their respective units.  The day fosters creative thinking and provides a forum for showcasing some of the best ideas being implemented across the University.  Participants in the forum discussed the Block Museum’s convening of student research and faculty expertise from across the University—including contributions from classics, art history, sound arts, materials science, computer science, medicine, archaeology, and art history—to investigate an ancient Roman-Egyptian mummy “discovered” on Northwestern’s campus. Robust teaching and learning opportunities behind-the-scenes resulted in a rich public exhibition reflecting the diversity of Northwestern’s endeavors and telling the multifaceted story of an ancient artifact through collaborative perspectives