The Block Museum of Art is pleased to announce that Janet Dees, The Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art has received a Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Warhol Foundation.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will award a total of $413,500 in Fall 2018 Curatorial Research Fellowships. Fellows will receive grants to support new scholarship on contemporary artistic practice, particularly that which is experimental and under-recognized. Research activities include travel, visits to relevant museums, archives and collections, convenings of colleagues and advisory groups as well as the development of related publications. Currently in its eleventh year, the Curatorial Research Fellowship program has awarded $4.2 million to 125 curators since it was established.

“The curators in this group will conduct research on artists and movements that have been overlooked or ignored while engaging with, in many cases, difficult subject matter that is timely and culturally relevant. Their projects will bring new perspectives and methodologies to bear on the study of exhibition-making and currents in contemporary
–  Joel Wachs, Warhol Foundation President.

In preparation for the exhibition A Site of Struggle: Making Meaning of Anti-Black Violence in American Art and Visual Culture(working title), Dees will travel to conduct research in archives and collections around the country. She will also bring together scholars, artists, community members, and others for in-depth discussions of the manner in which anti-black violence has been depicted in art over the 19^th and 20^th centuries and in our day.

“I am very appreciative of the Warhol Foundation’s support which provides the resources and time for me to develop A Site of Struggle, and consider issues that have been of interest to me for some time, namely the role that an aesthetic framework can play in helping us to engage with difficult subjects, and how museums can responsibly present such work. These interests are aligned with The Block Museum of Art’s mission to be a convener of interdisciplinary discussions in which art is a springboard to engage with issues and ideas that are relevant to our lives today.   The conversations with colleagues this fellowship enables will be invaluable to allow the implications of this project the thought and consideration they require, and will impact not only the exhibition, but also my work going forward and potentially that of colleagues in the field as well.”
-Janet Dees, Block Museum Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art