On Equity and Action, Staff Stories

A Space of Reimagining: Discussion with “Woven Being” curatorial team

The Block Museum of Art is in the midst of researching and planning a 2025 exhibition with the working title Woven Being: Indigenous Art in Chicagoland. The exhibition planning process has centered Indigenous methodologies that prioritize collaboration, reciprocity, and sustained dialogue. This includes planning by a curatorial team including; Jordan Poorman Cocker ([Gáuigú (Kiowa)), Terra Foundation Guest […]

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On Equity and Action, Partnerships

In Good Relation: Reimagining the Grant Process for Community-Based Projects

How can funding models and grant-writing processes be more equitable and inclusive? At The Block, collaborators Kate Hadley Toftness and Lois Taylor Biggs (Cherokee Nation and White Earth Ojibwe) are challenging traditional approaches to fundraising with practices informed by Indigenous practices of collaboration, reciprocity, and sustained dialogue. In the below essay, originally published on the American […]

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Exhibition Stories, On Equity and Action, Staff Stories

A Grounding in Place: Lois Taylor Biggs reflects on “Woven Being” curatorial research trip

The Block is currently forming the exhibition Woven Being: Indigenous Art in Chicagoland (working title) through Indigenous curatorial methodologies that prioritize collaboration, reciprocity, and sustained dialogue with an expanding, intergenerational community of Indigenous knowledge sharers and non-Indigenous allies.  The Block’s Lois Biggs, (Cherokee Nation and White Earth Ojibwe) Terra Foundation Curatorial Research Fellow, shares a personal account […]

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Programs & Events

Indigenous Artists in Collaboration: A Conversation [Video]

On November 29, 2017, the Block Museum was honored to host a special conversation with four contemporary Native artists.  Each of the women on the panel works within a collaborative artistic practice that unites artists, community, and audience. From to participatory dance and collective narratives, to asynchronous poetry and public interventions these artists upend the notion […]

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