In 2023, The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)’s working group on Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices for North American Museums Holding African Objects (CCRBP) embarked on a series of listening sessions to better understand the needs of African-based colleagues. Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Block Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, and her colleagues […]
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American exhibitions that showcase African art often exhibit work that is housed in the collections of American or Western institutions. It is still somewhat rare for American institutions to borrow loans directly from African museums and cultural sites. In 2019, The Block presented the groundbreaking Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across […]
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“What ‘big idea’ about Africa did curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock want to convey when she decided to plan the exhibition Caravans of Gold?” So reads a discussion/comprehension question that may soon be posed to 6th grade students across Massachusetts. This month The Block Museum of Art is honored to contribute to a curriculum development project created […]
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On February 2, 2019 The Block welcomed filmmaker and NYU Professor of Cinema Studies Manthia Diawara for a screening and conversation on his 2017 film An Opera of the World. A world-renowned theorist of cultural hybridity, Manthia Diawara left Mali at the age of 19, emigrating to France and later to the United States. He […]
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The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is proud to announce the publication of a Teacher’s Guide and a list of Recommended Resources to support educators in teaching about the history of medieval West Africa and its resonances today. The packet, accessible to a non-specialist audience, can be used alongside the touring exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time or […]
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On April 24, 2019, a panel of six international archaeologists gathered at The Block Museum of Art to discuss their research and contributions to the field of archaeology. This unique event offered an insider’s perspective on the scholars recent findings in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria. Titled “From the Field: International Archaeologists in Conversation” the event […]
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The Block Museum of Art presents Isaac Julien’s The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats) through April 14 The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is pleased to announce its presentation of artist Isaac Julien’s groundbreaking 2007 video installation The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats) running January 26 through April 14, 2019. The renowned work presents […]
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‘Caravans of Gold’ debuts at Block before traveling to Aga Khan Museum and Smithsonian An ambitious new exhibition will showcase the splendor and power of the lost kingdoms and commercial centers of Africa, using centuries-old artifacts from sites around the Sahara Desert and artwork from West and North Africa, Europe and the Middle East that […]
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