The average museum visitor spends less than 30 seconds looking at a work of art. It usually takes us far less than that to draw conclusions about what we see; the human brain seems to perform this work automatically and instantaneously. How can we slow down our looking habits to better understand the process of […]
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“The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.” – Epilogue, How […]
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How might one artwork be used as a point of connection for a deeper understanding of history, artmaking, collecting practices, identity, and more? The Block Museum of Art is proud to publish an interactive close looking project, the result of graduate research centered on the 1996 print Mother and Child by artist Margaret Burroughs (American, 1915 […]
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Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art centers teaching and learning as its primary mission. While the museum daily welcomes class tours, discussions, and groups from across the University, two 2022 courses go even further. Held within the museum walls these courses take the exhibition “A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence” as the primary […]
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In this online tour Block Museum curators Essi Rönkkö and Kate Hadley Toftness discuss the work of two artists whose works seek to reframe the narratives of history. The discussion focuses on the work of Shan Goshorn and Rosalie Favell, two contemporary artists presenting art as a critical intervention in the histories of harm and […]
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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 Melanie Garcia Sympson, […]
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In The Story of More, the 2021–22 One Book One Northwestern selection, author Hope Jahren implores us to join the fight against climate change and illuminates some of the factors that led us to a crisis point. Jahren details how innovations in agriculture, farming, transportation, and the energy sector have led to greater efficiencies, but […]
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The Block Museum student docents contribute to projects throughout the museum. This season the opportunity arose for members of the team to contribute to the Fall 2021 collection exhibition Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection, through the contribution of gallery labels. We sat down with Mina Malaz (Art […]
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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 […]
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The Block Museum is excited to partner with Northwestern’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) which funds undergraduate students to work with faculty on research projects. URAP students gain first-hand, mentored knowledge of research practices in their discipline. We took a moment to sit down with Janitza to discuss her background and work at the museum. […]
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