Earlier this year, former Block Museum Student Associate Bobby Yalam ’24 presented new research at the 2026 Student Summit organized by the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. His paper, “When Students Choose: The Relationship between Participatory Acquisitions and LGBTQ+ Representation in University Collections,” explores how student participation in collecting decisions can shape university art collections.

Yalam worked as a Block Museum Student Associate while an undergraduate at Northwestern. In that role, he led tours, helped facilitate public programs, and participated in the museum’s student-led acquisition process. Today, he is pursuing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree in Managing Art and Cultural Heritage in Global Markets at the University of Glasgow, where he is continuing to develop this research as part of his graduate studies.

In his presentation, Yalam examined student-led acquisitions as a growing practice within university museums. While many institutions involve students in selecting artworks for their collections, he notes that little scholarly research has examined the impact of these programs. His project takes up that question by studying how student participation influences representation within collections and by identifying models that other universities might adapt.

The research compares two case studies: the long-running Mark H. Reece Collection of Student-Acquired Contemporary Art at Wake Forest University and the student-led acquisition program at The Block Museum of Art. Across both examples, Yalam finds that putting acquisition budgets in students’ hands can significantly expand intersectional LGBTQ+ representation within university art collections, even when increasing such representation is not an explicit goal of the programs.

The Block’s program emerged from the museum’s participatory exhibition Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection, which invited students to critically examine museum collecting practices. Since 2020, Block Student Associates have researched artists each year and recommended works for acquisition following the museum’s collecting guidelines.

Yalam notes that the impact of student involvement reaches further than the works students pick themselves. In several cases, research and advocacy by Student Associates informed additional acquisitions by the museum’s curatorial team, helping expand representation of artists whose work engages questions of identity and community. The program has also generated unexpected collaborations, including the creation of Leonard Suryajaya’s photograph Perennial Blossom, which features Block Student Associates themselves participating in the artwork.

Ultimately, Yalam argues that because university collections exist in large part to serve students, involving them in acquisition decisions can deepen the relevance of museum collections on campus while generating new possibilities for representation and dialogue.

The Block is thrilled to see this work find a wider audience and contribute to conversations across the field about the role students can play in shaping the future of museum collections.