Earlier this year, former Block Museum Student Associate Bobby Yalam ’24 presented new research at the 2026 Student Summit organized by the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. His paper, “When Students Choose: The Relationship between Participatory Acquisitions and LGBTQ+ Representation in University Collections,” explores how student participation in collecting decisions can shape university art […]
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A Spring 2024 Department of Art History course brought students into The Block to think about the evolving obligations of museums. Taught by Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Professor of Practice in Anthropology and Block Museum Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, the class titled “Museums and Responsibility,” began with a conversation around the very definition of museum. […]
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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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Academic libraries and museums foster many outstanding collaborations supporting teaching, learning, and research within their respective institutions. These collaborations, like other progressive activities, require significant invisible labor, caretaking, and resources that have not always been documented. A new publication from The American Library Association titled Cultural Heritage and the Campus Community: Academic Libraries and Museums in […]
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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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In the years leading up to the 2019 exhibition Caravans of Gold, Block Museum staff formed relationships with colleagues based at partner institutions in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria. Chief among our collaborators was Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), the federal government agency which manages the collection, documentation, conservation, and presentation of Nigerian […]
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What is the role of art museums in this moment nationally and globally as we navigate a pandemic, manage economic upheaval, and grapple with racial injustice? How can museums best activate their public platforms, collections, and programs and strengthen community connections to become new spaces for dialogue, reflection, action, and impact that extend beyond their […]
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On November 19, 2019 the Block Museum of Art was honored to receive an award of “Superior Achievement in Best Practices” for its exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa from the Illinois Association of Museums. Karen E. Everingham, President of the Illinois Association of Museums Board […]
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In September 2019 the Block Museum welcomed Simran Bhalla as a 2019-2020 graduate fellow. Block Museum Graduate Fellowships are offered to two graduate students annually, one from Art History and one from any department within the Graduate School. Graduate Fellows are integral members of the museum staff and support projects through exhibition and collection research, curating, writing […]
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Earlier this year, The New York Times reported on a major discovery made by Northwestern scientists, in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago. An interdisciplinary team had used tools originally developed for medicine, manufacturing and geology to discover hidden details in the Picasso’s paintings and sculptures. Audiences learned more about this fascinating story, which […]
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