Engagement Report & Partners

In 2019–2020, the Engagement Department continued creating and strengthening connections across Northwestern’s campus, Evanston, the North Shore, and Chicagoland at large.

In Fall 2019, through the presentation of Pop América, 1965-1975, Engagement built and sustained relationships with both existing and new partners. Previous partners included colleagues from Northwestern’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese and The Poetry Foundation, while budding partnerships included collaborators from the Medill School of Journalism and the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), with whom we co-programmed throughout the quarter in events like our Opening Day Celebration, gallery talks, and the contemporary artists’ program América Now: Chicago Artists in Dialogue, facilitated by NMMA’s Sarita Hernández.

In Winter 2020, through alignment with Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection, Engagement was able to foreground campus relationships and feature graduate students Maryam Athari, Vidura Bahadur, Simran Bhalla, Özge Karagöz, and Hamed Yousefi in programs like the exhibition’s opening lectures and, gallery talks. Additionally, throughout Fall-Winter 2019-2020, Engagement actively continued training and leveraging its cohort of 23 Student Docents to grow relationships with the Block’s many audiences through tours of the museum’s exhibitions and student-led Tales of Art at the Block public programs. In Spring 2020, as Northwestern pivoted to remote learning and work, the Engagement Department adapted to the online environment by centering its focus on the museum’s permanent collection and its Student Docents. Docent's digital work researching the collection and continued online training offered the department key insights to begin modeling best practices for building community virtually and designing a fully remote Student Docent pilot program for the upcoming academic year.

In Summer 2020, as Engagement welcomed a new Associate Director of Campus and Community Education and Engagement at its helm, the department continued its focus on the permanent collection and growing interdisciplinary relationships through teaching and learning on campus, and in the community.

With live, online programs exploring objects in the collection with inquirybased discussion, we collaborated with new partners at the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Transformation and deepened existing relationships with Evanston and Y.O.U.’s High School Leadership Project to explore critical issues of health equity, race, gender, policing, and the experience of young people today. As the new academic year approached, we sought advice from our senior Docents to launch an expanded

Tour group of students from Youth and Opportunity United, Evanston

Docent program that builds on existing strengths, and empowers our Student Docent team in new ways as ambassadors on campus, and as in-house student advisors to ensure we can continue to center student voices and perspectives at The Block.

As we look ahead to the coming year, and as is reflected by the department’s work throughout 2019-2020, the Block’s Engagement Department remains committed to building and strengthening partnerships, highlighting diverse perspectives, elevating student voices, and creating critical dialogue about the world today through works from The Block’s collection.

– América Salomón,

Engagement Coordinator and Educator

– Erin Northington,

Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement