On April 2, 2026, The Block Museum of Art hosted an online collection talk exploring artworks from the museum’s collection in dialogue with the biography Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline. Led by Curatorial Associate Llewyn Blossfeld and facilitated by Engagement Coordinator and Educator Isabella Ko, the program considered how […]
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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 […]
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Earlier this month, students gathered for Inherited Impressions, a collaborative evening hosted by the Dittmar Gallery’s Crafting Community Workshop series in partnership with The Block Museum Student Associates. Led by Maggie Munday Odom ’26, Student Supervisor of Programs & Engagement at the Dittmar Memorial Gallery, and Block Museum Student Associate Tyree Walton ’27, the program […]
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Meet Muyang Chen, a fourth-year Northwestern University student majoring in Anthropology and Art History. With academic interests rooted in modern and contemporary art — especially queer art and its political, affective, and material strategies — Muyang brings a critically engaged approach to understanding how artworks operate within (and push against) institutional contexts. As a curatorial […]
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Meet Aja Frazier, a Northwestern University student double majoring in History and Asian Languages and Cultures. With a focus on Japanese women’s history and performance studies from the Edo through Showa periods, Aja brings a deep curiosity about the ways art and scholarship intersect — and she’s exploring those connections firsthand through her work as […]
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Each fall, The Block Museum Student Associates (BMSAs) begin their year by spending time in the galleries, choosing artworks that capture their curiosity, and writing reflections based solely on observation. In Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper, students found themselves drawn to color, gesture, and emotion, responding to Frankenthaler’s work and […]
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The Block is delighted to welcome Uche Okpa-Iroha as the museum’s 2025–2026 graduate art history fellow. Uche is a PhD candidate in Art History at Northwestern University whose research explores the development of modes and theories of representation—how they have been historically constructed and how they continue to shape artistic and scholarly inquiry today. A […]
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What happens when we look at modernist art through the lens of horror? This fall, The Block Museum of Art invites visitors to explore that question in a collection-based exhibition created in collaboration with students in Northwestern’s Spring 2025 Art History seminar “Horror Modernism.” Taught by Art History professor Jessy Bell in partnership with The […]
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A New Drop-In Space for Art, Reflection, and Connection Opens This September This fall, The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University invites visitors to experience art a little differently—with a couch, a cup of coffee, and just one artwork at a time. Launching September 2025 and running throughout the fall and winter quarters, The […]
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The Block Museum’s collection of more than 6,000 works is fully digitized and accessible through our eMuseum platform, but that doesn’t always mean it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Search tools rely on structured metadata—keywords that help surface an object when a user types in terms like “diaspora” or “activism.” Without consistent, descriptive […]
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