This June, The Block Museum of Art traveled to Iowa City to take part in the annual conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), where two members of our team led sessions exploring how academic museums support teaching, research, and community engagement through art.
The AAMG is the leading educational and professional organization for academic museums, galleries, and collections. In recognition of the unique opportunities and challenges of its constituents, the AAMG establishes and supports best practices, educational activities, and professional development that enable its member organizations to fulfill their educational missions.
Academic museums and galleries are often the training ground for the nation’s next generation of cultural leaders, the first engagement for many young people with original works of art, and campus centers for interdisciplinary discussion. Both sessions reflected The Block’s commitment to teaching, inquiry, and learning through direct engagement with works of art.
Learning Through Doing: Visitor Interactives That Deepen Engagement
Erin Northington, Associate Director of Campus and Community Education and Engagement, presented as part of a panel on participatory experiences in academic museums.
Works of art can invite many forms of engagement beyond the gallery label. In this session, four academic museums shared approaches that encourage close looking, conversation, making, and reflection. Together, the presenters explored how these environments support inquiry, collaboration, joyful community engagement, and the institutional systems needed to sustain them.
Erin’s contribution spotlighted The Living Room at the Block Museum of Art, a drop-in space where visitors spend time with a single work of art through conversation, reflection, and close looking.
A pilot space in a converted gallery, The Living Room was designed to extend a welcoming invitation, encourage close looking, and create opportunities for reflection and conversation around works from The Block’s collection. Single works of art rotate monthly, accompanied by questions and activities generated by the Block Museum Student Associates to foster reflection, curiosity, and connection. The space is anchored by two interactive walls: Look Close, with prompts and additional information to help visitors dig into what they see, and See Far, which invites visitors to think broadly about the role art plays in our lives, share a reflection, and pick up a postcard with an at-home activity for continued engagement. Featuring free coffee, comfortable furniture, and ample charging stations, the Living Room encourages lingering, dialogue, and repeated visits.
Looking ahead, The Living Room returns in Fall 2026 in partnership with Northwestern Athletics, drawing on The Block’s multi-year collaboration with student-athletes and coaches. Featuring portraits from the collection, the installation and its accompanying programs will demonstrate how works of art can support dialogue, reflection, and learning across campus.
Empowering Creative Decisions: Student Art-Buying at Academic Museums and Galleries
The Block was also represented by Essi Rönkkö, Associate Curator of Collections and Academic Programming, who took part in a panel examining student art-buying programs as a hands-on model for teaching research, critical thinking, collaboration, and informed decision-making.
The session examined how such programs operate across a range of institutional contexts, including as courses at private liberal arts colleges or public universities or as extracurricular programs.
The four panelists compared structures, goals, and outcomes of student-led acquisition initiatives, exploring how programs vary in scale and funding, including endowed models versus annual fundraising, and programs situated as curricular courses versus extracurricular models. Particular attention was given to the decision-making processes students use to develop criteria, research artists, debate priorities, and negotiate consensus within their peer group, alongside the challenges that arise around sustainability, equity, and collection stewardship.
By highlighting lessons learned, the panel offered practical guidance for institutions seeking to launch or reinvigorate student art-buying initiatives. Ultimately, the discussion demonstrated how these programs strengthen collections while giving students meaningful experience in research, collaboration, and thoughtful decision-making that extends well beyond the museum.
Both sessions drew robust audiences and prompted thoughtful discussion among academic museum colleagues from across the country. The Block was pleased to share its work in object-based learning, close looking, and student-centered teaching with the broader AAMG community.
