Throughout 2020-21 The Block Museum is reflecting on artworks from the collection that explore ideas of excess, consumption, and the environment, and offer an interdisciplinary perspective on the climate crisis. Our project is inspired by The Story of More by Hope Jahren, Northwestern University’s 2021-2022 One Book One Northwestern (OBON) selection. This online talk by […]
Read moreDocent team selects Leonard Suryajaya’s Quarantine Blues as 2021 Block Museum Student Acquisition
The Block is proud to announce that its undergraduate Student Docent team has made the formal recommendation to Block Museum director Lisa Corrin for the acquisition of Quarantine Blues (2020), a photograph by Chicago-based artist Leonard Suryajaya from his series of the same name. The recommendation comes after an intensive 7-week selection process by the […]
Read moreStudents showcase collection findings in 2021 Undergraduate Research Expo
With over 6,000 works in The Block Museum collection, there are countless opportunities to ask questions and pursue areas of research depth. Throughout 2021 our Curatorial Undergraduate Research Assistants Janitza Luna and Joyce Wang have supported the museum by seeking information about artworks within our collection database. As they became familiar with the collection, one […]
Read more“Black is Beautiful”: Ayinoluwa Abegunde & Hyohee Kim on Black Beauty after the 1960s
How do artworks talk to us… and to one another? And how can we learn to talk back? Northwestern undergraduates in The Block Museum Student Docent Program considered these questions in a unique lunchtime Art Talks! series pairing two works from the museum collection that have something to say to one another (and to us.) In Winter 2021 , […]
Read more“Representing an Unknown Figure”: Brianna Heath on Deborah Roberts and Jim Nutt
How do artworks talk to us… and to one another? And how can we learn to talk back? Northwestern undergraduates in The Block Museum Student Docent Program considered these questions in a unique lunchtime Art Talks! series pairing two works from the museum collection that have something to say to one another (and to us.) In Winter […]
Read moreStudent Docents Drop New Tracks…in the Campus Art Walk Audio Tour
The Block Museum Campus Art Walk is a selection of sixteen sculptural works, free and open to all. Primarily located outdoors around the Northwestern Arts Circle as well as in a sculpture garden designed by renowned Chicago architect John Vinci, the walk is a campus highlight for visitors and campus regulars alike. A campus art […]
Read moreArt, Access, and Agency: Melanie Garcia Sympson talks with Gallery Systems about The Block’s online collection
Interview reprinted with permission from Gallery Systems – View original. Northwestern University’s The Block Museum of Art is placing a stronger focus on its digital initiatives in a resounding response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a teaching and learning museum, the institution is upholding its mission statement of “presenting art across time, cultures, and media” by pursuing […]
Read moreMercy in the Museum: Collection Tours [Video]
Throughout Fall 2020 the Block Museum welcomed online audiences to a special series of shared conversations, focusing on artworks from the collection that explore ideas of justice, race, and equity. [View our Just Mercy Project] These discussion-based lunchtime tours were led by Block staff and inspired by Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and […]
Read moreThe Block receives gift of posters by Argentinean Pop Artist Edgardo Giménez
The Block Museum proudly announces a gift of mid-twentieth century posters that significantly expands its holdings of Latin American art, graphic design, and Pop Art. In recognition of the presentation of the exhibition Pop América, 1965–1975 (fall 2019), The Block has received a donation of 18 archival posters by Edgardo Giménez (Argentinean, born 1942). A […]
Read moreTeaching “Just Mercy” Through the Block’s Collection [PDF]
Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is the One Book One Northwestern reading selection for the 2020-2021 school year. Just Mercy follows Stevenson through the beginning of his career as a lawyer devoted to seeking justice for those who have already been treated unfairly by the judicial system. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson calls on each […]
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