2012-2023 Timeline

2012 2013 2014

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Complete reorganization of staff and rewriting of museum mission. The institutional focus turns to teaching, learning, and research. With the leadership of Christine Robb as chair, the Block actively recruits new Block Board of Advisors.

STEICHEN GIFT The Block Receives 49 vintage Steichen prints from Richard and Jackie Hollander. Additional Steichen gifts presented by the Hollanders in 2017 and 2020 bring the Museum's significant holdings of Steichen works to over 150.

ARTIST COLLABORATION The Block collaborates with artist Terry Adkins on his 30-year retrospective, solidifying the Museum's commitment to commissions and collaborations with living artists. In following years, the Museum will launch original projects with Wangechi Mutu, Kader Attia, Geof Oppenheimer, Jen Bervin, Marie Watt, Hank Willis Tomas, and more.

2015

NORTON GIFT Peter Norton gifts the Block 70 contemporary works; the collection direction expands to include global contemporary art from all media, including video, and refocuses on works that will align and support Northwestern curriculum and student dialogue.

2016

MOORMAN EXHIBITION The Block opens "A Feast of Astonishments," a major original exhibition that will come to represent the hallmarks of The Block's new exhibition approach, including groundbreaking research, interdisciplinary engagements, and international touring. The show travels to NYU and to Museum der Moderne Salzburg.

2017

PUBLISHING PROGRAM The Block formally launches its publishing program, which includes an in-house series of catalogs distributed

by Northwestern Press and an ongoing partnership with Princeton University Press for major national, peerreviewed publications. Museum publications in the program have since been highlighted by the NY Review of Books and London Review and shortlisted for Alice Award and Prose Award.

INTERDISCIPLINARY FELLOWSHIP The Block Museum partners with the Graduate School to create an annual interdisciplinary fellowship for a graduate student from any department across Northwestern. This annual fellow joins existing Art History Fellow.

BOARD OF ADVISORS ENDOWMENT The Block Museum Board of Advisors establish the Block Board of Advisors Endowment Fund at Northwestern supporting collections, exhibitions, publications, and programs that engage students, faculty, and the broader community with global art and artists.

WILSON AND TANANBAUM ENDOWMENTS A gift from Lisa and Steven Tananbaum permanently establishes the position of the Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, while Stephen R. Wilson and Susan K. Wilson permanently establish the Susan and Stephen Wilson Block Museum Engagement Fund, endowing the leadership position of the Block Museum engagement department.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION Architectural Digest names The Block among Best University Art Museums in America, and the New York Times lists the Block's William Blake publication among "Top 10 Art Books of the Year."

2018

STRATEGIC PLAN The Museum announces "The Block as a Frame of Mind," its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan. The plan is rooted in a process-driven practice emphasizing dialogue and collaboration and sets five-year goals ART+ENGINEERING The Block kicks off a long-term Art+Engineering collaboration with McCormick School of Engineering, including the creation of cross-disciplinary coursework and significant research projects. Collaborative engineering work around the exhibition Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt leads to international coverage, including the front page of Chicago Tribune, PBS Newshour, and BBC News. The Block and McCormick also select Dario Robleto as the first Northwestern Artist-at-Large.

NEW BRAND IDENTITY With Northwestern's Office of Global Marketing and Communications, The Block announces its new brand identity, celebrating the spirit of openness that is a core value of the Museum. The brand includes a new logo, style guide, print collateral, website, and brand statement "What's inside The Block? It depends on how you look."

CINEMA EVOLUTION The Block welcomes Michael Metzger as Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Arts, who reconceives Block Cinema as a platform dedicated to dialogue, encounter, and exchange through the art of the moving image. The entirety of the cinema program is made free.

2019

CARAVANS OF GOLD The Block presents Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange, across Medieval Saharan Africa, including over 250 artworks spanning five centuries, 32 lenders from 6 countries, and unprecedented loans from partner institutions in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria. In following years, the exhibition tours to The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

FOUNDATION SUCCESS The Block receives its first grant from the National Endowment for Humanities – among the largest grants in the Museum's history. In coming years, the Block will continue to build on this pattern for grant support, building meaningful funding relationships with the Terra Foundation of American Art and the Warhol Foundation, among others.

EXHIBITION IMPACT The exhibition receives over 200 press mentions in 22 countries – including features in Artforum, Art in America, and Le Monde, as well as the cover of Northwestern Magazine. The exhibition is recognized as #3 in Chicago Tribune's "Top 10 Exhibitions of 2019." In addition, the Block is named one of the top 10 university museums nationally, "Raising the Cultural Bar on Campuses."

AUDIENCE GROWTH Block Museum attendance exceeds over 50,000 annual visitors for the first time. The educational impact of Caravans of Gold includes hosting over 207 student tours. Dedicated curriculum and teaching guides are designed to transform how West African history is taught in the United States.

2020

WE WILL CAMPAIGN The We Will Campaign concludes. The Block exceeds its $ 15 million goal, raising $ 27 million to support exhibitions, publications, the Block's collection, and student and faculty collaborations.

DIGITAL GROWTH The Block culminates a multi-year project of digitizing its entire collection. The museum collection database launches to the public with images and complete records for the Block collection of over 6,000 artworks. This digital collection enables rich remote teaching opportunities during the pandemic, reaching 175,000 viewers of digital exhibitions, programs, and events during the COVID closure.

DEAI COMMITMENTS The Block authors its Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI), which outlines ten institutional growth areas. The Museum develops multiple support structures for its work in this area, including a Staff Working Group, membership in Enrich Chicago, and a Board of Advisors DEAI Study Group. The Board of Advisors creates a DEAI Fund to support The Block's work toward equity commitments.

2021

40TH ANNIVERSARY ACQUISITIONS The Block marked its 40th Anniversary with a collecting initiative focused on "Thinking about History." The Museum accessioned more than 550 works of art over three years, selected to amplify the Museum's connections to the Northwestern curriculum. The initiative culminated in the exhibition Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking About History with the Block's Collection and the Museum's first collection-focused publication.

NEW BOARD LEADERSHIP The Block Board of Advisors welcomed new co-chairs Cheryl Johnson-Odim (WCAS MA '75, WCAS Ph.D. 78) and Stuart H. Bohart (WCAS '89, Parent' 25).

STUDENT ASSOCIATES Under the leadership of Erin Northington, Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement, the Block Museum reimagines its longtime Student Docent program as The Block Museum Student Associates.

The paid student cohort takes on a central and expanded role in the Museum's work, including public facilitators, peer-to-peer ambassadors, and in-house student advisors. Among the Student Associates' new programs is the research and recommendation of an annual acquisition to the Museum collection.

2022

RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS The Block embraces its role as a research and education catalyst. Kathleen Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, is named "Professor of Practice" in Weinberg College. The Museum launches a series of extended partnerships, including clinical work with The NU Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning, founding a Climate Crisis + Media Arts Group with Buffett Institute and a pilot program with Northwestern Athletics.

A SITE OF STRUGGLE The landmark exhibition "A Site of Struggle" centers The Block as a leader in field-wide conversations on the ethical responsibility of museums when exhibiting difficult history, including establishing scholar and community Advisory Boards. The exhibition travels to Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Montgomery, Alabama.

COLLECTION COUNCIL The Block Collection Council launches as a collaborative learning opportunity to expand The Block's resources for acquiring art consistent with The Museum's educational mission.

2023

ARTIST-AT-LARGE The Block and McCormick Engineering culminate the work of Dario Robleto's five-year engagement as Artist-at-Large with the exhibition "The Heart's Knowledge." The Office of the Provost recognizes the collaborative program model with an institutional Best Practices Award.

STRATEGIC PLANNING The Block concludes its previous Strategic Plan and begins co-creation and benchmarking for a new Plan in partnership with the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change.

REACCREDITATION REVIEW The Block submits all documents for 10-year reaccreditation process with the American Alliance of Museums, and hosts reaccreditation review.