dialogue – Stories From The Block

At the Limits of Life and Empathy: Dario Robleto and Malcolm MacIver in conversation [Video]

Northwestern Engineering’s Malcolm MacIver is as surprised as anyone to find himself studying the neural basis of empathy. MacIver dropped out of school in the fourth grade for a mix of reasons that included having a learning disability and bullying. Because it was illegal for him to not be in school at that time, his family was […]

Programs & Events

The closest thing to eternal that we have ever touched: Ann Druyan on interstellar ethics, subversive art, and rising to the questions of the cosmos [Video]

From her work in the 1970s as the Creative Director for NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Messaging Project to her current role as writer and producer of the beloved television series Cosmos, Ann Druyan has devoted her life to expanding the horizons of human empathy and communication. In insisting that the thresholds of cosmic exploration must be approached […]

Museum News, Partnerships

Communicating through Art: Museum clinical study partnership considers the role of art in combating primary progressive aphasia

Throughout Winter 2022, The Block Museum of Art and The Northwestern University Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning (NUCASLL) partnered on an innovative clinical study centering on art-based discussion in the treatment of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Working together, the units developed the trial program “Conversations Through Art” as a clinical treatment case-study. The […]

Block Cinema

“It becomes something else…”: Reece Auguiste on critical reflexivity and the interweaving of fact and fiction [Video]

For many, London is an imaginary landscape, a composite of images that circulate in art, literature, and popular culture. On November 12, 2020 Block Cinema explored this landscape with Unreal City: Film Essays on London by Ayo Akingbade and Reece Auguiste a program of experimental essay films from the UK. The screening was followed by a […]