G R A N TS S U P P O RT his was an ambitious year for The Block’s grants program. We set our sights high with major national funders and applied for more grants than in any previous year.
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The results of these efforts included an unprecedented $355,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art. This grant will be foundational to our exhibition A Site of Struggle: Making Meaning of Anti-Black Violence in American Art and Visual Culture, as well as the companion publication and related programs. The grant includes critical support for the exhibition’s travel to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, AL, where the impact of the exhibition will be amplified by engagement with Montgomery’s cultural organizations dedicated to education about the legacy of slavery and the struggle for civil rights in the United States. The Terra Foundation’s investment in A Site of Struggle is all the more significant now that the funding landscape has changed in the wake of COVID-19. The Block has received several unrestricted grants from organizations responding to the needs of museums during this challenging time. The Terra Foundation and the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation provided significant grants in addition to existing grants already awarded to The Block during the 2020 fiscal year. Along with a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, these general operating funds will support crucial areas, including staff salaries. The Myers Foundations also responded with flexibility in supporting the extended presentation of The Block’s Caravans of Gold exhibition which will be on view into 2021 at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C.
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The Ruttenberg Arts Foundation also supported the upcoming exhibition Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection. This collection-based project further received generous grants from The Alumnae of Northwestern University and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Block Cinema received a notable grant from the Media Arts program of the National Endowment for the Arts, supporting Morning Will Come. This series, presented as a complement to Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection, featured important Indian films rarely (if ever) shown in the United States. Northwestern’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program deserves special mention for a grant underwriting an internship for Madeline Hultquist ’22. Hultquist assisted the curatorial department with research on artworks entering the collection as part of our 40th anniversary “Thinking about History” initiative. The Block is grateful to our many supporters who have bolstered this initiative and we look forward to celebrating together in 2021.
Right: Visitor to Pop América
