Meet Vicky Wang, a Northwestern University student majoring in Art History with a minor in Art Theory and Practice and pursuing the Segal Design Certificate in the McCormick School of Engineering. Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Vicky is interested in the intersection of Japanese and Western art, as well as the relationship between fashion and social change. As a curatorial intern at The Block Museum of Art, she is exploring the museum’s collection and gaining hands-on experience to inform her interests in museum work and conservation.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and your field of study?
I’m from Taipei, Taiwan, and I’m majoring in Art History with a minor in Art Theory and Practice, while pursuing the Segal Design Certificate. My academic interests center on the intersection of Japanese and Western art, particularly how Western styles influenced Japanese art and visual culture. I’m also interested in fashion, especially how it reflects broader social change and, in turn, impacts and shapes society.
What drew you to The Block Museum? What are you looking forward to working on?
I’ve worked with materials from the McCormick Library of Special Collections in Professor Yuthika Sharma’s classes, but I haven’t really had the chance to engage with works in The Block’s collection. After seeing a friend work as a curatorial intern at The Block, I wanted the same opportunity to work closely with the collection and the people behind it. I look forward to learning more about what our university holds and seeing how an art museum works behind the scenes, especially through handling artworks and preparing for classroom visits.
What museum exhibitions or programs (outside The Block) have inspired you lately?
Not exactly a museum, but the Setouchi region in Japan continues to inspire me. Since the 1980s, Benesse Corporation and the Japanese government have worked to revitalize the area as a cultural and educational site. Today, Setouchi is home to some of the most impressive museums, such as the Chichu Art Museum and the Teshima Art Museum, and artworks like Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins and James Turrell’s light installations.
What makes Setouchi such a different art experience is that the artworks are highly site-specific and deeply intertwined with local communities, and the museums themselves are innovative in format, with some built around just a single artwork. These spaces inspired me to reconsider what a museum can look like, as well as the purpose and boundaries of art. In Setouchi, art is not only displayed to be appreciated; it can become part of local islanders’ everyday lives while also serving as a soft tool for larger governmental purposes.
How do you see your internship connecting to your future academic or career goals?
For my career goals, I’m interested in working in museums, so I value the chance to see how they operate behind the scenes and to learn the vocabulary and systems they rely on, such as The Museum System (TMS). I’m also considering a path in conservation, so hands-on experience handling artworks would be especially helpful.
Can you share a favorite artwork or object you’ve encountered so far in The Block’s collection?
My favorite artwork is Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? by the Guerrilla Girls. I love their work for the indisputable statistical data they present and for the witty, ironic humor that points straight to inequalities in art museums. I always enjoy stopping to read their posters whenever I see them in museums, so it was a great surprise to find one in The Block’s collection.
I see their work as a reminder for viewers to reconsider the works in front of them: these works were selected for display, and before that, someone decided which artists were worth collecting and preserving at all. That is why it matters that the Guerrilla Girls remain direct and sharp in challenging the norm: it’s not that there have been no great women artists, but that their works have often been overlooked and undervalued.
