In February 2023 Princeton University Press reached out to a few of its authors with a question. What do you find is commonly misunderstood about Blackness in America? Janet Dees, The Block’s Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and editor of A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence, […]
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The Block Museum exhibition A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence concluded its tour on November 6, 2022, closing its run at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama. To mark the conclusion of this project we are honored to share an archive reflecting just a portion of the exhibition comments […]
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How can museum professionals advocate for museums to be a place for difficult conversations? In September 2022, Janet Dees, the Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum curator of modern and contemporary art at the Block Museum joined colleagues Angie Dodson, director of Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Ashley Rogers, Director of Museum Operations for the Whitney […]
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How do academic art museums support cross-disciplinary teaching and learning, in and outside of the classroom, and with communities on and off campus? This was the question on the table during a two-day engagement between the Block Museum and students of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. On Thursday and Friday, September 8 and 9, 2022, […]
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On Saturday, August 13, 2022 the Block Museum celebrated the opening of “A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence” at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery Alabama, where the exhibition will be on view through November 6, 2022. The Block has been honored to work with the Montgomery Museum of Fine […]
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Why would you want to be involved with this exhibition? Why do you take on challenging material in your scholarship? How do you support your well-being while researching issues related to anti-Black violence? The Block Museum exhibition A Site of Struggle took over five years in planning – a long process in which the curators […]
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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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In 1971, ten civil rights activists, including 24-year-old Rev. Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ’s Commission on Racial Justice, were wrongfully convicted of arson in Wilmington, North Carolina. Through interviews with the parents of the Wilmington 10 (as well as political prisoner Assata Shakur, filmed just before her escape from the Clinton Correctional […]
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The challenging materials on view in A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence can elicit a range of personal responses. Knowing this, the exhibition curators reached out to Chicago-based mindfulness and meditation teacher Joshua Bee Alafia to discuss the project and how they might offer an audio tool in the spirit of care. […]
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