In January 2024, The Block was excited to welcome Christiana Castillo to its team as Manager of Public Programs. A poet, gardener and, of course, lover of the arts, Christiana brings a rich background in community engagement and public health to her work with The Block. We sat down with Christiana to learn more about how her unique experience will shape her vision for The Block’s future programming.
- Can you tell us a bit about your background and your field of study?
I double majored in English and Peace and Conflict studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. And, you know, I was working in the world, and I really found a sweet spot in arts education and restorative justice-oriented work. I went to the University of Michigan for grad school, and I majored in education, so teaching and learning with communities has always been close to my heart. Throughout my studies, I was always working in the field of education. Much of my work was with refugee, immigrant, and asylum-seeking communities, as well as work within carceral settings with a center of healing centered arts education. I got to see the ways that access to creating and viewing art can have a positive impact on people, and I was drawn to the way art can be a tool to foster better public health.
- How did you find your way to the museum work?
Being an arts educator for so long, I naturally collided with museums. I think that museums can be an untraditional sort of classroom, and I think that museums have limitless potential for creating impactful connections. When I’m thinking about public health, I’m thinking about what is going to enhance somebody’s quality of life, and I believe that connections – through artworks and through other humans, all of which is offered through museums – can enhance the quality of life of others.
Museums give people the opportunity to connect with artworks that may enhance their own understanding of themselves, the world that we live in, and the way that they move through the world is public health. Museums give us the opportunity to learn new information, to change our perspectives, to learn and understand others in different ways. Museums are a space of possibility, and I’m interested in continuing to find my way through this possibility.
- What particularly interests you about working within the context of a campus art museum?
I think I was in a unique position when I was at Wayne State, because the Detroit Institute of Arts was right around the corner. It’s a public institution, not within Wayne State, but visiting the DIA really enhanced my learning as an undergraduate student as an individual. I am excited by the prospect of being able to help enhance the learning of students and the greater museum audience in an intentional spot like The Block.
- What drew you to the Block Museum? What are you looking forward to working on?
I was drawn to the size of the Block Museum. The museum itself is small but mighty. There’s a unique opportunity to think intentionally, and with care, about the artworks on view and within the Block’s collection and how to engage our audience, especially through public programming.
I also found the prospect of working closely with students exciting! I’m an educator at heart, and I’m looking forward to building relationships with students, encouraging their professional development, and creating unique opportunities for the Northwestern community with them.
- What museum exhibitions or programs have inspired you lately?
Faith Ringgold: American People at MCA is such a beautiful exhibition and such an amazing celebration of the work that Faith Ringgold has done. Personally, I love fiber arts, especially quilts, so being able to see Ringgold’s work in person was special to me. Ringgold’s artwork is vibrant and beautiful while doing important historical and identity work through multiple mediums. Ringgold is an icon, and I am glad I got to see her works in person.
I’m looking forward to viewing Native America: In Translation, curated by Wendy Red Star, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Wendy Red Star is one of my favorite contemporary artists and I am excited to see her work as a curator.
- Is there a piece in The Block’s collection that’s stuck with you or resonated in some way?
While reviewing the collection, Bitter Sweet by Teresa Mucha stood out to me. The piece is a print made up of color etching and aquatint that depicts two human bodies merged but dismembered, with what seems to be a green plant growing out of the necks of the body in the artwork. Though the body depicted is dismembered, missing heads, fingers, and arms that are connected to itself, there is still plant life growing out of the body, and the hands seem to be resting on one another, offering care. Bitter Sweet reminds me of the interconnectedness of humans and nature, the way life continues, even when fractured. This piece made me think of the resiliency of humans and nature and the ways we care for one another.
- Is there anything upcoming at the Block Museum or Northwestern you are particularly excited about?
I’m extremely excited about the current exhibition on view, Actions for the Earth. I’m a gardener, a poet, and someone who was raised to be in a good relationship with the Earth. I love caring for the Earth and being in reciprocity with the Earth, so it’s been interesting and inspiring to see the artworks that make up the exhibition that are so focused on the Earth and how to care for her.
Actions for the Earth, in my opinion, is very much centered on public health. I think when climate change is on so many people’s minds, especially with doom, panic, and anxiety, we need time as humans to slow down, to look at artworks, and to sit with ways people are taking action for the Earth. This show enacts upon us caring for the Earth, which also then has us care for ourselves, and it’s creating space to kind of think about the world that we’re living in and how we can build care and reciprocity into our world more.
- What are your upcoming goals for your role?
One of the goals I am most excited for is engaging our Block Museum Student Associates in the public programming process more. I’m interested in creating opportunities for public programming that invites various forms of learning styles for our audiences at the Block.
