Exhibition Stories, Northwestern Learning, On Equity and Action

“What it means to struggle together”: Ashleigh Deosaran on The Living Image of Sound

In Spring 2023 The Block opened The Living Image of Sound: Notes on Jazz and Protest at Northwestern a concise exhibition exploring the intersections of visual art, music, and student-led social justice movements during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition features artwork and ephemera related to the trailblazing poet and musician Sun Ra and […]

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Our Community, Partnerships, Student Associates

“The Complications of Community”: Student Associates visit Shorefront Legacy Center

In early November, the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSAs) visited the Shorefront Legacy Center to hear from Founder Dino Robinson Jr. on the role of a community archive. Founded in 2002, Shorefront Legacy Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, and educating visitors on Black histories from Chicago’s suburban North Shore communities. Facilitated […]

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Global Perspectives, Programs & Events

Opening Conversation: Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World [Video]

The Block’s Fall 2022 exhibition, Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s explores the wide range of nonfigurative art practices that flourished in the Arab world over the course of four decades. Looking critically at narratives of mid-20th-century abstraction, the exhibition rethinks art-historical canons and expands conversations around global modernisms. The exhibition keynote conversation on […]

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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 […]

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Northwestern Learning

Aligned Academics: Two Northwestern courses offer in-depth exploration of “A Site of Struggle”

Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art centers teaching and learning as its primary mission. While the museum daily welcomes class tours, discussions, and groups from across the University, two 2022 courses go even further. Held within the museum walls these courses take the exhibition “A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence” as the primary […]

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Staff Stories

Meet Block Museum Fellow Rikki Byrd

In September 2020 the Block Museum welcomed Rikki Byrd as a 2020-2021 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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Student Associates

The Block Docent Diaries: Top Memories

The Block Museum Student Docent Program is made up of students from across Northwestern University that serve as the museum’s tour guides and ambassadors. In Spring 2020, the program continues online as students connect, research, and plan in support of the Museum’s mission. We reached out to this team to learn more about their current […]

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Staff Stories

Checking in On… Amelia Mylvaganam, Curatorial Research Aide

During Spring 2020 the Block Museum staff and students continue to connect online and advance the Museum’s teaching and learning mission. This week, we check in on student worker Amelia Mylvaganam who serves as a Curatorial Research Aide. In addition to contributing to The Block, Amelia is freshman in the School of Communication, majoring in […]

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Student Associates

The Block Docent Diaries: Works that Stay with You

The Block Museum Student Docent Program is made up of students from across Northwestern University that serve as the museum’s tour guides and ambassadors. In Spring 2020, the program continues online as students connect, research, and plan in support of the Museum’s mission. We reached out to this team to learn more about their current […]

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