Originating at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art, A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence explores how artists have engaged with the reality of anti-Black violence and its accompanying challenges of representation in the United States over a 100 + year period. In conjunction with this exhibition, a national group of curators, educators, and scholars convened […]
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The NAACP’s 1935 exhibition, “An Art Commentary on Lynching,” and its use in anti-lynching activism represents a critical but often overlooked moment in American art history. In March 2022, The Block Museum hosted a special conversation about this historical exhibition, the intersection of art and activism, and connections to A Site of Struggle and our community today. […]
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How has art been used to protest, process, mourn, and memorialize anti-Black violence within the United States? Originating at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art, the exhbition A Site of Struggle explores how artists have engaged with the reality of anti-Black violence and its accompanying challenges of representation in the United States over a 100+ year period. The […]
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Five years in the planning, new exhibition stakes a claim on the power of the visual to make change Originating at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art A Site of Struggle explores how artists have engaged with the reality of anti-Black violence and its accompanying challenges of representation in the United States over a 100 + year period. Images […]
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As The Block pivoted to online engagement last year, our staff continued to consider how to center equity and inclusion in our digital work. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of the Collections team, almost 6,000 high resolution images of artworks in the collection are now visible on our new public-facing collections site. After the site’s […]
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What is the role of art museums in this moment nationally and globally as we navigate a pandemic, manage economic upheaval, and grapple with racial injustice? How can museums best activate their public platforms, collections, and programs and strengthen community connections to become new spaces for dialogue, reflection, action, and impact that extend beyond their […]
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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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In October 2018, the Block Museum hosted a panel discussion with Chicago artists committed to prison reform and to using art as a mechanism for change. In recognition of the 2020-2021 One Book One Northwestern reading selection Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption we are happy to make audio and transcript of this […]
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Recent events have again laid bare the aggression, injustices, and inequities faced every day by African Americans. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery,—these are just three more names added to a tragically long list of unarmed black individuals whose lives have been taken by the hands of police officers empowered to protect them and through […]
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William Blake recognized artmaking as a powerful tool to address the pressing social issues of his time. In this spirit, the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University invited guests to experience the exhibition “William Blake and the Age of Aquarius” and join Melissa Blount, Evanston-based artist and activist and creator of the Black Lives […]
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