2020 - 2021
ANNUAL REPORT 1
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Cover: Block Graduate Fellows Rikki Byrd and Bethany Hill research the work of Margaret Burroughs in the collection
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THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART • ANNUAL REPORT September 1, 2020 — August 31, 2021 INTRODUCTION Message from the Director
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Mission & Vision
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A Year by the Numbers
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2020-21 THEMES One Book One Northwestern
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Thinking about History
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Centering Student Voices
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Community Connections
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Artist Perspectives & Campus Partnerships
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Collection Acquisitions & Loans
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OPERATIONS Staff Board of Advisors DEAI Commitments Collections & Exhibitions Engagement & Partners Curatorial Caravans of Gold Financials Grants and Support
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MESSAGE FROM THE
DIRECTOR Dear Block Supporters, Colleagues and Friends,
The 2020-2021 academic year marked The Block Museum’s 40th anniversary. In celebration of this milestone, Northwestern students, University staff, the Block Board of Advisors, and the many communities we serve embraced this opportunity to reflect on our role as an academic art museum and how we activate what art does in the world. We have also focused on our responsibility in shaping narratives of history. How can we challenge the visibility of some histories at the expense of others? How can the collection be an essential campus and community resource and a catalyst for conversation about the urgent issues of our day? These lines of inquiry sharpened our collecting priorities. We have developed a new collecting strategy and are encouraging gifts and support for acquisitions that diversify our holdings. Through the generosity of many of you, we accessioned more than 550 works of art over the last three years, each selected to amplify teaching by embracing history’s complexities and contradictions. The Block’s mission statement describes us as a place in which art is a “springboard” for discussions of issues and ideas that are 5
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timely and significant to our lives. Throughout the last year we also grappled with the meaning and potential of this “springboard” idea. At times, the resilience and creativity of the Block team has found us confidently springing forward. We landed on new ways of thinking about our work as a dynamic and responsive site of inquiry and experimentation, and new ways of holding space where you can have moving experiences with complex works of art. At other times, our footing was less sure. The events of the year and quarantine closure catapulted us ahead towards topics that challenged our assumptions of art and of museums, into difficult conversations, and into a reckoning with our institutional identity and responsibilities in the face of racial and societal inequity. Nevertheless, in both confidence and in uncertainty, we sprang forward. It’s clear there is no “springing back” to where we were before. In Spring of 2020 as we marked one-year of pandemic upheaval, I asked the Block team what still excited them in our work and what gave them hope about our future. The team
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expressed passionate belief in the Block’s continued opportunity to deepen and broaden our impact now and in the future. We cited all we learned during this challenging year; teaching a new online course and supporting faculty using the collection remotely; organizing Zoom workshops; reshaping our core student engagement programs with student input, and hosting digital film screenings with powerful live discussions. Our work as a catalyst for making meaning has never been more important.
Our work as a catalyst for making meaning has never been more important.
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From projects on our building facade, to Student Associates programs on our Zoom screens, from the galleries of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, to the windows of Y.O.U—Evanston’s youth services organization—The Block's work this past year has been expansive - and deep partnerships enabled extraordinary new endeavors and educational impact. We are deeply grateful for your support as we continue to explore what the Block is and what it can be. Thank you for helping us to be a space where art is a catalyst for transformation, conversation, and connection.
– Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director, The Block Museum of Art blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
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VISION
STATEMENT To be a dynamic, imaginative, and innovative teaching and learning resource at Northwestern University through an artistic program that is a springboard for thoughtprovoking discussions relevant to the curriculum and to our lives today. To inspire and develop a new generation of artists, scholars, and arts professionals by providing experiential learning opportunities bridging the classroom and the world beyond the campus. To serve as a crossroad between campus and community, by creating an environment where all visitors feel welcome to participate. 7
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Image: Cinema team Malia Haines-Stewart and Michael Metzger as The Block staff reconvenes in June 2020
MISSION
STATEMENT The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art enriches teaching and learning on the campuses of Northwestern University and in the communities of their surrounding regions by: •
Presenting art across time, cultures, and media;
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Convening interdisciplinary discussions in which art is a springboard for exploring issues and ideas;
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Collecting art that supports the Northwestern University curriculum. blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
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THE BLOCK BY THE NUMBERS
2020-2021
A
YEAR
LIKE N O N E
OTHER JANUARY 20, 2021 GALLERIES RE-OPEN AFTER COVID
$24M $3.7M 6,400 OPERATING BUDGET
AUDIENCE
PROGRAMS
PEOPLE
ENDOWMENT
WORKS IN THE COLLECTION
39 25 14 10 BOARD OF ADVISORS
STAFF
3 HYBRID EXHIBITS
STUDENT DOCENTS
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STUDENT WORKERS
GRADUATE FELLOWS
19 59 11 26 CLASSES & GROUP VISITS
PUBLISHED STORIES
VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS
CINEMA PROGRAMS
29K 11K 736 4.5K ONLINE EXHIBITION VIEWS
ONLINE COLLECTION VIEWS
ONLINE PROGRAM ATTENDEES
ONLINE CINEMA ATTENDEES
30K 23K 175K 22K EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS
WEB & BLOG VIEWS
VIDEO VIEWS
Pat Phillips (born 1987, Lakenheath, England, active in Louisiana), Untitled "I got in 1 little graffiti arrest & my mom got scared...but my dad lost it when me & the homey didn't take community service seriously," 2019, Acrylic, pencil, airbrush, and aerosol paint on paper. 22 1/4 × 30 1/8 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, gift of Sari and James A. Klein 2021.5.1
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2020-21 FOCUS: ONE BOOK ONE NORTHWESTERN TEACHING JUST MERCY AT THE BLOCK
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One Book One Northwestern is a community-wide reading program that aims to engage the campus in a common conversation centered on a carefully chosen, thought-provoking book. Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption was the One Book reading selection for the 2020-2021 school year. Just Mercy follows Stevenson through the beginning of his career as a lawyer devoted to seeking justice for those who have already been treated unfairly by the judicial system. Stevenson’s book has prompted a national reckoning with how racism and poverty have so often marred American society. The Block Museum of Art was proud to partner with the One Book program for a year of conversations and art that explored the themes of this shared text. "Perhaps now more than ever, Stevenson’s voice needs to be heard. The recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and other Black Americans at the hands of police violence have ignited a global reckoning with America’s pernicious investment in policing, criminalization, and incarceration. The failure to adequately address the COVID-19 crisis, especially as it devastated vulnerable communities, including prison populations, revealed the nation’s prioritizing of some lives over others. But Stevenson calls us forward to a better, fairer world— one that is more just in being more merciful." —Jennifer Lackey, Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program
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ONLINE FILM SCREENING & PANEL DISCUSSION
PRISON + NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS PROJECT: PICTURING "THE LONG TERM" SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
Since 2011, the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project has brought artists, educators, and activists together with incarcerated individuals at Illinois’ Stateville Correctional Center. Through classes, workshops, and exhibitions, PNAP creates opportunities for learning across prison walls, connecting those inside with the tools and resources needed to creatively communicate their concerns to the larger Chicago community. This event highlighted one such initiative: The Long Term (2016-2018), a series of works created around the issue of long-term sentencing policies and their impacts. This screening presented moving-image works generated by this project, including The Long Term (2018, 13 min), a hand-drawn animated film made by artists serving extended sentences, as well as testimonials from people impacted by long sentences. Following the films, members of the PNAP community discussed the larger scope of the project, the challenges and rewards of arts and humanities education in state prisons, and the urgent need for sentencing reform today. Presented by The Block Museum of Art with the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. PARTICIPANTS IN THE DISCUSSION • Damon Locks, visual artist and co-director of art and exhibitions for PNAP • Sarah Ross, visual artist and co-director of art and exhibitions for PNAP • Eric Blackmon, paralegal at Christian Lawndale Legal Center, educator-inresidence at the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Lab, former PNAP student. • Audrey Petty, director of the Odyssey Project at Illinois Humanities, former PNAP teacher • Jill Petty, Communications Officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, codirector of Community Building at PNAP • Miriam Petty, Associate Professor of Radio/Television/Film, Northwestern University, former PNAP teacher
WATCH
ONE BOOK ONE NORTHWESTERN
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Jennifer Lackey, Director of Northwestern Prison Education Program
STAFF PROJECT
READING & DISCUSSION OF JUST MERCY OCTOBER 202O
In the Fall of 2020, The Block Museum staff committed to reading and discussing Just Mercy together. After reading independently the staff was joined by Professor Jennifer Lackey, Director of Northwestern Prison Education Program. In this extended session, staff had the opportunity to hear from Lackey about her work and the work of the Northwestern Prison Education Program. “You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close,” [Bryan’s grandmother]…Proximity to the condemned, to people unfairly judged; that was what guided me back to something that felt like home.” —Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy Discussion Prompt: Throughout Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson calls our attention to the importance of being and remaining “proximate” to injustice in order to affect social change. What does “being proximate” to injustice mean in your own life? What does “being proximate” to injustice mean in the context of your professional capacity in higher education and in museums?
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FILM SCREENING & PANEL DISCUSSION
VOICES ACROSS TIME SHARING WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF RE-ENTRY MARCH 3, 2021
In the early 2000s, activist media organizations Beyondmedia and Visible Voices offered critical, collaborative media-making workshops to formerly incarcerated women at Grace House as part of the re-entry process. These pedagogical encounters, spearheaded by artist Salome Chasnoff and activist Joanne Archibald, created space for women to challenge mainstream media’s representations while learning to use the tools of video production. In videos like What We Leave Behind (2001, 21 min), the women of Grace House told their own stories on both sides of the camera; this screening and conversation asks what these initiatives mean today. “Voices Across Time: Sharing Women’s Experiences of Re-entry” brought together organizers from Beyondmedia with current and former members of Grace House, a residential program for women exiting the Illinois prison system. This screening and discussion centered women’s experiences of reentry, exploring the possibilities of art and storytelling in reclaiming citizenship. The event featured a live screening and conversation with members of Grace House and Beyondmedia Education with moderation by Professor Sally Nuamah from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern. Co-presented by the Block Museum of Art with The Graduate School, Graduate Women Across Northwestern (GWAN), Women Initiating New Directions (WIND), and Gender & Sexuality Studies Program. With support from the Center for Civic Engagement, the School of Education and Social Policy, and The Alumnae of Northwestern University.
WATCH
PostONE Screening Discussion ONE BOOK NORTHWESTERN
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DIGITAL RESOURCE
TEACHING JUST MERCY THROUGH THE BLOCK’S COLLECTION LAUNCHED FALL 2020
The Block Museum continued its collaboration with One Book One Northwestern by highlighting a selection of artworks from the museum collection that resonate with themes of the text, such as equity, justice, and mercy. Audiences were invited to explore works in the museum’s new collection database, learn more about their contexts, and download high-resolution images and PDF publication to support online teaching.
"We selected a range of artworks from The Block’s collection that reflect and expand upon Just Mercy’s themes, including the humanity and dignity of incarcerated people, the historical precedents for unfair sentencing practices, and the sheer exhaustion of pushing against an unjust system." —Melanie Garcia Sympson, Curatorial Associate
Curator Introduction: In Just Mercy, the 2020–21 One Book One Northwestern selection, author Bryan Stevenson calls on each of us to reckon with the failings of a complex, unfairly harsh, and often unaccountable criminal justice system. This selection of artworks from The Block’s collection reflects on themes, events, and ideas from Just Mercy. Works by ten artists—contemporary and historic—amplify and deepen our engagement with the book by bringing different backgrounds and perspectives into dialogue with it. The artworks address such issues as systemic racism, discrimination, and failures of the justice system, alongside artworks that allow us to reflect on racial and economic injustice and social inequities through a broader lens. Just Mercy also reminds us that compassion and empathy are fundamental to our own human dignity. In connection with the book, the artworks presented speak to Stevenson’s belief that “the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, the condemned.” We invite the Northwestern community as well as outside students and educators to use these works as an opportunity to connect to the themes of the text, whether it be through discussion or personal reflection. - Corinne Granof and Melanie Garcia Sympson
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Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917 - 2000), Confrontation on the Bridge, from the portfolio An American Portrait 1776–1976, Color screenprint on paper 1975, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Paul S. D'Amato, LS 1985.3.4.
Margaret Burroughs (American, 1915 - 2010), The Extended Family, 1996. Commercial reproduction on paper, based on a linoleum cut 16 1/8 in x 23 3/4 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Margaret Burroughs. 1996.46.6
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Prentiss Taylor (American, 1907 - 1991), Scottsboro Limited, from the portfolio Scottsboro, 1932. Lithograph on paper 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 1992.57.
In Scottsboro Limited Taylor used modernist imagery with a spiritual inflection to evoke empathy for the falsely accused defendants. Although many photographs of the Scottsboro Boys appeared in newspapers, Taylor used generalized faces to convey universality and a deep sense of humanity. —Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
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ONLINE COLLECTION TOURS
MERCY IN THE MUSEUM Throughout Fall 2020 the Block Museum welcomed online audiences to a special series of shared conversations, focusing on artworks from the collection that explore ideas of justice, race, and equity. These discussion-based lunchtime tours were led by Block staff and inspired by Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, the One Book One Northwestern reading selection for the 2020-2021 school year. The series offered a frame for us to think thematically about works in our collection, and the chance to look closely, together at three extraordinary artworks. KAMEELAH JANAN RASHEED, SUM FOLLOW (2019)
OCTOBER 23, 2020
“What do we mean when we talk about inequality in the context of human beings, rather than in the context of abstract values?” PRENTISS TAYLOR, SCOTTSBORO LIMITED (1932)
NOVEMBER 20 , 2020
“It kind of inverts how we think of justice usually as being blind, as being impartial. Here, justice has a way of seeing that’s racialized.” DONNA FERRATO, WOMEN WHO KILLED IN SELF-DEFENSE… (1990)
DECEMBER 11 , 2020
“While these facts are staggering, it is stories themselves that give readers some proximity to the experiences of the people involved, perhaps serving as a more motivating call to action.”
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ONE BOOK ONE NORTHWESTERN
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Ron Adams (American, 1934 - 2020) Blackburn, 2002 Color lithograph on paper. 25 in x 35 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by Christine and William Robb III and Bill and Vicki Hood, 2010.11.
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2020-21 FOCUS:
THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
THE BLOCK MUSEUM’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY
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The 2020-2021 academic year marked The Block Museum’s 40th anniversary. As we prepared to celebrate this milestone, The Block’s students, staff, board, and wider community embraced this moment to think together, giving particular attention to our collection and the compelling stories that can be told through works of art. The idea of history; building history, writing history, questioning history; led us down a path of productive exchange that invited us to reconceive the role of the collection: The Block’s work as an academic art museum is not only about what art is, but crucially about what art does in the world. Throughout the year we offered the collection as a frame for connecting the past to our current moment, one in which so much is at stake nationally and globally. We identified projects visualizing how history takes its shape and how we can work together to create a more just future.
Installation view of For One and All
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Installation view of For One and All
EXHIBITION
FOR ONE AND ALL PRINTS FROM THE BLOCK’S COLLECTION JANUARY 20 - APRIL 11, 2021
In its foundational years, The Block Museum of Art gained a reputation for presenting groundbreaking exhibitions that considered the unique roles prints and printmaking have played within visual culture. Printmaking stands apart from other artistic media in its capacity for reproduction and dissemination and is an ideal medium for telling stories about human experience to the broadest audiences. The Block began to build its collection around etchings, lithographs, screen prints, and other printed media. While the museum’s mission has evolved over time, prints continue to resonate with its aspiration to present art across time, cultures, and media and to inspire interdisciplinary discussions relevant to our lives today. On the occasion of The Block’s 40th anniversary, For One and All: Prints from The Block’s Collection celebrated prints and printmaking by bringing together a diverse range of artwork from the permanent collection. The exhibition considered print production through various lenses layering complex histories of reproduction, circulation, collecting, and social activism.
For One and All placed highlights from The Block’s collection, many of which have not previously been on view, into conversation with one another. The exhibition includes examples of works that have been in the collection since the founding of the Block in 1980, along with recent acquisitions and gifts. From early modern European prints, to Depression-era and social activist prints, and those produced at print workshops throughout the United States, the exhibition surveyed the depth and breadth of the Block’s print collection and showcases the vital role that prints serve within the context of academic art museums. Due to restrictions in place during COVID quarantine limited in-person appointments were available for faculty and student curricular preparation, instruction, and research. The exhibition was also presented in an online format. Curated by Cait DiMartino, 2019–20 Block Curatorial Graduate Fellow, and Corinne Granof, Academic Curator. This program was partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
VISIT FORONEANDALL.ORG THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
PROJECT LAUNCH
THE BLOCK COLLECTION DATABASE FALL 2020
With over 6,000 artworks in its holdings, The Block Museum of Art enriches teaching, learning, reflection, and dialogue while serving as a springboard for interdisciplinary thinking about the issues of our time.The foundation of the museum’s collection lies in prints, drawings, photographs, and other works on paper, and these continue to be areas of expansion. Additionally, The Block collects modern and contemporary art globally across all mediums. In conjunction with its 40th Anniversary Celebration the museum completed the full launch of its online collection database. The platform includes browsing by artist, theme, date and medium and the creation of highlights packages and personal collections. Training materials produced in print and video allow the collection to be utilized across campus as an essential Northwestern resource.
THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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Block Curatorial Fellow Rikki Byrd, installing Behold Be Held
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Installation view of Behold Be Held showing works by Romare Bearden and Catherine Opie
OUTDOOR EXHIBITION
BEHOLD, BE HELD APRIL 19 – AUGUST 22, 2021
As our galleries remained closed to visitors due to the pandemic, we challenged ourselves to think imaginatively about engaging visitors through our permanent collection. While the 2020-21 year altered so much in our lives, it has also highlighted how art remains a vital window into our feelings and experiences. Curated by Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, Rikki Byrd, Behold, Be Held used the facades of The Block, the neighboring Ethel M. Barber Theater, and the building of our community partner Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) as an outdoor gallery. Reproductions of artworks from the Block Museum collection invited visitors to reflect on how art holds us through moments of crisis. These works capture gestures that we may have taken for granted prior to the pandemic, but we have missed dearly. The selection of works was guided by themes of self-care, self-authorship, and community. It also explored how subtle moments with others prepare and carry us on our journeys. Within these works, people hold each other through life changes, create spaces of sustenance, and raise their hands to declare “I am still here.” Behold, Be Held was a meditation and a prompt, asking: What are you most in need of right now? Behold, Be Held was curated by the 2020–21 Block Museum of Art Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, Rikki Byrd (PhD candidate, African American Studies). It was developed in partnership with The Leadership Project at Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) in Evanston, IL, with the participation of: Malik Agee, Cherie Animashaun, Saliha Ansari, Isabel Horek Gualtier, Michia Kenderick, Aaliyah Knox, Jocelyn Maldonado, Ciara Nicole Phillips-Gentle, McKenzie Royal, James Thoussaint, Mia Williams, Nia Williams. This program was partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Generous support was provided by the Northwestern Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts; the Black Arts Consortium; the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities; and The Graduate School, Northwestern University.
VISIT BEHOLDBEHELD.ORG THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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Filmmaker Rania Stephan and Hannah Feldman, Associate Professor of Art History
FILM SERIES
LIBERATING HISTORY ARAB FEMINISMS AND MEDIATED PASTS OCTOBER 8 - 13, 2020
Moving across languages, national boarders, and cinematic styles, the wide spectrum of feminist filmmaking by women from the Middle East and North Africa is largely unknown in the United States. The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University set out to shine a light on this body of work with Liberating History: Arab Feminisms and Mediated Pasts, a free online cinema series running October 8 – 30, 2020. The five-part series offered an extraordinary encounter with rare Arab cinema, spanning previously unavailable landmark features and shorts from the 1970s through contemporary media. The films of Liberating History draw on archival material, Islamic visual culture, and ethnographic practice to explore personal and political histories, challenging accounts that have omitted feminist and decolonial perspectives. The series included path-breaking films such as Heiny Srour’s Leila and the Wolves (1984), which centers Arab women’s struggles in the region’s modern history, and Selma Baccar’s Fatama 75 (1975), an essay film combining history and fantasy. Work such as Lebanese video artist Rania Stephan’s The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (2011) emphasized changing and contradictory views on gender and sexuality in the region. Piloting an innovative format for an online presentation, each of the five events in the series were available to registrants to watch for a 24hour period. The series is co-presented by The Block Museum of Art with support from the Middle East and North African Studies Program at NU and Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Two shorts programs, Inherited Memory: Blood Runs Thicker Than Water, and Present Futures: Sci-Fi and Social Ecology were co-curated by the Habibi Collective, a digital archive and curatorial platform for Middle Eastern and North African women’s filmmaking.
“Many of these films are essential cinema, radical in their aesthetics and prescient in their feminist and decolonial critiques of Arab history. Yet they have not been available to view outside of rare festival screenings, and English-language criticism about them is scarce. Our hope for this series, which is available to view worldwide, is that these films receive the audience and interest they deserve” —Simran Bhalla, Northwestern University PhD in Screen Cultures and co-curator of the series
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LEILA AND THE WOLVES
OCTOBER 8-9, 2020
(Heiny Srour, 1984, Lebanon/UK, digital, 93 min)
Heiny Srour’s striking, inventive film features Nabila Zeitouni as Leila, a young Lebanese woman in London who time-travels through twentieth-century Lebanon and Palestine. It was Srour’s second film, after the landmark documentary The Hour Of Liberation Has Arrived, and her only feature-length fiction film. Leila And The Wolves brings together elements of documentary and evocations of Arabian mythology. Srour conducted often-dangerous location shooting for several years, combining wondrous compositions with images from archival film to reconstruct conventional historical narratives. Focusing on women’s neglected political and social contributions, Leila And The Wolves brings a sharp feminist perspective to the region’s conflicted colonial past. Followed by a pre-recorded discussion between Heiny Srour and Rebecca C. Johnson WATCH CONVERSATION
THE THREE DISAPPEARANCES OF SOAD HOSNI
(Rania Stephan, 2011, Lebanon, digital, 68 min)
OCTOBER 15-16, 2020
This film by Lebanese video artist Rania Stephan explores the life of famed Egyptian movie star Soad Hosni. Stephan relies entirely on images and sound from rare videotapes of Hosni’s films, produced between 1959 and 1991--once wildly popular, now mostly inaccessible–-to tell the story of her life. Hosni died in London in 2001 (by suicide, though conspiracies abound), and despite her fame, true details of her life are scarce and contested. The film explores Hosni as a sex symbol, song-and-dance queen, and tragic heroine, emphasizing changing and contradictory views on gender and sexuality in Egypt and mourning the lost mediums and modes of Egyptian cinema. Followed by a pre-recorded discussion between Rania Stephan and Hannah Feldman.
WATCH CONVERSATION
FATMA 75
OCTOBER 22-23, 2020
(Selma Baccar, 1975, Tunisia, digital, 60 min)
Banned in its country of origin until recently, Fatma 75 is the first non-fiction film made by a Tunisian woman. It is a feminist essay film that uses the figure of a young woman, a university student, to embody and expand on the political histories of significant women in Maghrebi history. The protagonist is called Fatma as an ironic reference to the name French colonizers used to refer to Arab women. Director Selma Baccar combines fiction and re-enactment with interviews and archival material to vividly illustrate the intersecting histories of Tunisian independence and women’s emancipation. Shown in a new digital restoration produced by Africa in Motion. Followed by a live discussion between Florence Martin, scholar of Maghrebi women's cinema, and NU candidate in the Department of Political Science Issrar Chamekh. WATCH CONVERSATION
THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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PRESENT FUTURES: SCI-FI AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY
(Various Artists, 2009-2019, Various Countries, digital, approx. 82 min)
OCTOBER 29-30, 2020
"Present Futures" was the first of two shorts programs guest-curated by the Habibi Collective, a digital archive and curatorial platform based in London, focused on femxle filmmaking from the Middle East and North Africa. This screening featured short films by women that imagine futures and forms of resilience in a time of climate violence. The films included Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour’s IN VITRO, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi short about loss and revival. Each film explored how the climate crisis intersects with ongoing questions of inheritance and resistance in the Arab world. Followed by a discussion between Róisín Tapponi, founder and curator of the Habibi Collective in the U.K., and “Liberating History” series co-curators Simran Bhalla and Malia HainesStewart.
Submarine (Mounia Akl, 2016, Lebanon, 20 min) In Vitro (Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, 2019, Palestine/UK, 28 min) Before I Forget (Mariam Mekiwi, 2018, Egypt/Germany, 31 min) WATCH CONVERSATION INHERITED MEMORY: BLOOD RUNS THICKER THAN WATER
(Various Artists, 2009-2019, Various Countries, digital, approx. 78 min)
OCTOBER 30-31, 2020
"Inherited Memory" was the second of two shorts programs guest-curated by the Habibi Collective, a digital archive and curatorial platform based in London, focused on femxle filmmaking from the Middle East and North Africa. The screening featured four short films that address themes of inheritance and generational memory in Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine and their diaspora. The films include Lamia Joreige’s essay film A JOURNEY, which brings together various archival media to situate personal history within a political conflict, as well as other short fiction and documentaries about family conflict, solidarity, and legacies. Followed by a live discussion between Róisín Tapponi, founder and curator of the Habibi Collective in the U.K., and series cocurators Simran Bhalla and Malia Haines-Stewart.
Brotherhood (Meryam Joobeur, 2018, Tunisia/Canada/Qatar/Sweden, 25 min) Aziza (Soudade Kaadan, 2019, Syria/Lebanon, 13 min) A Journey (Lamia Joreige, 2006, Lebanon, 40 min) Like A String Of Beads (Inas Halabi, Palestine, 2019, 26 mins) WATCH CONVERSATION THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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ONLINE CONVERSATION
MUSEUMS AT THIS MOMENT OCTOBER 14, 2020
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 walls? On October 14, 2020 Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director of Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art, spoke with museum leaders (and Northwestern alumnae) Deborah Mack ’77 MA, ’86 PhD and Martha Tedeschi ’94 PhD. The discussion focused on how museum executives are listening to their staffs and communities and leading their institutions to advocate for social change, transform teaching and learning, and advance ideas that matter in today’s world. This special online program was presented by Northwestern New York, the Northwestern Alumni Association, and The Block Museum of Art.
“I like to think of these challenges as opportunities to pivot what we do, how we do it. It’s particularly an opportunity to reconsider who we serve, and how we serve. Having to answer those questions really highlights the challenges of inherited past and what we need to do in terms of moving forward, because our audiences are also shifting in how they access us, and how and why they turn to us” —Deborah Mack, Interim Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
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DIGITAL PROJECT
STAFF & STUDENT COLLECTION PICKS 2020
Each week during 2020 a member of The Block's team offered selections from the museum collection that resonated with them at the moment. The popular series became a way to share staff expertise and the breadth of the collection with public audiences during quarantine.
November 18, 2020 - Heartbeats, Footsteps, Wishes
"This week I chose to reflect on artworks that capture ephemeral parts of life: heartbeats, footsteps, wishes. These artists perform a kind of magic, creating evidence of fleeting human emotion and presence. They use materials that fix their subjects just firmly enough to reveal their limited ability to fix them at all. Dario Robleto returns a sense of mystery to the heartbeat. His portfolio of photolithographs recreates the earliest recordings of the human heartbeat on handflamed and sooted paper. His prints connect us to other bodies that once lived and breathed, and they draw us into a renewed awareness of our own deep selves: our hearts have been beating continuously since before our birth. Lorna Simpson invites us to consider the different qualities of a wish. With “wishbones” made from ceramic, bronze, or rubber, the work suggests that not all dreams have the same fighting chance. Felix Gonzalez-Torres memorializes a pattern of footsteps in the sand— yet, per the artist’s wishes, once exhibited, the image will be destroyed. The work acknowledges that art may serve to keep our loved ones close, in meaningful but incomplete ways. These works contain life, death, sadness, hope, and the potential energy of our own interpretations." • •
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Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (For Parkett), 1994, Screenprinted billboard, Gift of Peter Norton, 2016.4.14 (image courtesy @parkettart) Lorna Simpson, III (Three Wishbones in a Wood Box), 1994, Wood, felt, ceramic, bronze, and rubber, Gift of John Silberman, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences 1973, 2016.7.3 Dario Robleto, Before and during emotion, 1870, from the portfolio The First Time, The Heart (A Portrait of Life 1854 - 1913), 2017, Photolithograph on paperboard, Gift of Northwestern Engineering, 2018.6.2
—Kate Hadley Toftness, Senior Advancement Manager, Grants and Collection Council
SEE ALL PICKS THINKING ABOUT HISTORY
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Students visit The Block Collection as main gallery was used in 2020-21 as a socially distanced classroom
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Graduate Student Fellow Rikki Byrd
Student Docent Brianna Heath delivers an online Art Talk
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2020-21 FOCUS: CENTERING STUDENTS' VOICES STUDENT RESEARCH & LEADERSHIP
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STUDENT DOCENT TOURS
ART TALKS! DOCENTS IN DIALOGUE WINTER & SPRING 2021
How do artworks talk to us… and to one another? And how can we learn to talk back? Northwestern undergraduates in The Block Museum Student Docent Program considered these questions in a unique lunchtime Art Talks! series pairing two works from the museum collection that have something to say to one another (and to us). The team considered artworks in our Winter 2021 exhibition For One and All: Prints from The Block’s Collection, and our upcoming Fall 2021 exhibition, Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts.
WATCH SERIES
REPRESENTING AN UNKNOWN FIGURE DEBORAH ROBERTS AND JIM NUTT
FEB 26, 2021
In the first event of the series, Brianna Heath, Major in Art History, Minor in African American Studies (2021), discussed - She's Mighty, Mighty (2017) by Deborah Roberts and Twixt (1997) by Jim Nutt.
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BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL BLACK BEAUTY AFTER THE 1960s
MARCH 12, 2021
Ayinoluwa Abegunde (‘22, Chemical Engineering ) and Hyohee Kim (Kim ’22, Learning Sciences and Asian American Studies), discussed Untitled (Nomsa Brath with earrings designed by Carolee Prince), ca. 1964, Kwame Brathwaite and Mae, ca. 1985 by Jackie Hetherington The talk examined how two artists used portraiture as a tool to promote Black beauty by means of community engagement and social improvement in a time where Western standards of beauty prevailed.
ONE MUST MAKE DECISIONS ARTISTIC INTENTION
APRIL 9, 2021
In this online tour Rory Kahiya Tsapayi (’21, Art History and Journalism), discussed Untitled #49 (2002) by Laura Letinsky and Mother and Child (1971) by Romare Bearden.
AMERICA THROUGH A TOURIST’S LENS ED RUSCHA & TSENG KWONG CHI
APRIL 23, 2021
In this online tour Margeaux Rocco (’23) & Joely Simon (’21), discussed Mocha Standard (1969) by Edward Ruscha and Mt Rushmore, South Dakota from the Expeditionary Self-Portrait Series (1986) by Tseng Kwong Chi, two land-based works with complex views of American history.
A STRUGGLE AGAINST THE UNLIVABLE ART AND PROGRESS
MAY 7, 2021
In this talk, Claire Corridon (’21, American Studies and Political Science) and Karan Gowda (’22, Biological Sciences) discussed Untitled (Demonstrators), 1937 by Henry Simon and A Message in Nestle Water Bottles from Shea Cobb, Amber Hasan, Macana Roxie and LaToya Ruby Frazier at Sussex Drive and West Pierson Road, Flint MI, 2017 by LaToya
Ruby Frazier (2017)
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STUDENT RESEARCH
EXPANSION OF SCULPTURE GARDEN AUDIO TOUR FALL 2020
The Block Museum Campus Art Walk is a selection of sixteen sculptural works, free and open to all. Primarily located outdoors around the Northwestern Arts Circle as well as in a sculpture garden designed by renowned Chicago architect John Vinci, the walk is a campus highlight for visitors and campus regulars alike. A campus art walk audio guide has long been available via cell phone and on SoundCloud, created by student interns in 2017. This year we were proud to announce the expansion of the audio guide - to include two artworks that were repositioned after campus-wide construction projects necessitated their removal and storage. The sculptures by Italian American artist Virginio Ferrari are owned by the Bienen School of Music and have become #15 and #16 on the campus art walk. The new entries were researched, written, and recorded by Giboom Joyce Park ('22) a Block Museum Student docent studying Political Science, History, and International Studies.
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STUDENT RESEARCH
WRITING EXHIBITION LABELS MINA MALAZ ON WRITING FOR WHO SAYS... SPRING 2021
This year the opportunity arose for members of the Student Docent team to contribute to the Fall 2021 exhibition Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection, through the contribution of gallery labels. Students researched, and wrote throughout the year, including conducting first-person conversation with artists. Mina Malaz' (Art History and Psychology '21) label writing journey included an interview with contemporary artist Rashid Johnson. "I was intrigued by label writing because I had been interested in getting more involved in museum education to understand how it differed from the curatorial path. As I learned more, I got excited about the educational challenges of writing something to fit a broad audience, that offers understanding in only 150 concise words. This kind of work is critical to museum education because that's usually what educators are trying to do, appeal to a public with language that's accessible. I think one of the biggest challenges I had in mind was paying the work justice. I wanted to prompt meaningful interaction, using my labels as a springboard for conversation. I wanted it to be simple, but also inviting for complex discussion, that’s a hard thing to do." —Mina Malaz, Block Student Associate, 2020-2021
READ INTERVIEW
Research image of Rashid Johnson's CENTERING STUDENT VOICES Untitled 44 (Anxious Man) taken by Mina Malaz
Screen shot from Student Docent presentation to the Block Acquisition Committee
2021 STUDENT AQUISITION
LEONARD SURYAJAYA’S QUARANTINE BLUES
SPRING 2021
In May 2021 The Block was proud to announce that its undergraduate Student Docent team made the formal recommendation to Block Museum director Lisa Corrin for the acquisition of Quarantine Blues (2020), a photograph by Chicago-based artist Leonard Suryajaya from his series of the same name. The recommendation came after an intensive 7-week selection process by the group as they sought an artwork that would complement the museum’s holdings, connect to the mission, and resonate with curriculum across Northwestern. The acquisition project reflects the expansion of the Student Docent’s role within The Block, which includes not only engaging with the public, but also work to advise the museum and shape its relevance and connection to student experience. “At The Block, our student-led art acquisition program enables Northwestern undergraduates to shape the museum’s collection. They meet with artists, learn about the inner workings of the art market, and experience the complex decision-making processes that go into acquiring a work of art as a teaching resource. They also get an inside look at the museum from members of the curatorial team. For the Block team, hearing the perspectives of students is equally a learning experience. Seeing works of art through their eyes keeps our thinking current and our acquisitions relevant so that the collection is meaningful to student experience. It is a reminder of what it means to be an academic museum—to stimulate student thinking about what art is and what art does, its role in helping us understand our world and each other." —Lisa Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director
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Leonard Suryajaya (Chinese-Indonesian, born 1988), Quarantine Blues, from the series Quarantine Blues 2020, Inkjet print, 50 × 40 inches. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by Craig Ponzio and Julie and Lawrence Bernstein Family Art Acquisition Fund 2021.6.
“Suryajaya creates a relatable scene to commemorate a moment in history when most people were forced to spend more time indoors at home surrounded by objects of everyday life that, if read closely, tell a story of identity, place, and time. .” - Student Docent Acquisition Presentation
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Joyce Wang (left) and Janitza Luna studying Covarribus' Mexican Street Scene
STUDENT RESEARCH
2021 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPO MODERNIST DISPLAYS OF MESTIZO IDENTITY IN COVARRUBIAS’ MEXICAN STREET SCENE SPRING 2021
With over 6,000 works in The Block Museum collection, there are countless opportunities to ask questions and pursue areas of research depth. Throughout 2021 our Curatorial Undergraduate Research Assistants Janitza Luna and Joyce Wang supported the museum by seeking information about artworks within our collection database. As they became familiar with the collection, one particular work caught their eye, inspiring deeper inquiry that eventually became a stand-alone research project. Working with Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, as a faculty advisor, the pair developed a research abstract that was accepted for Northwestern University's Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition running May 2627, 2021. As part of the symposium the students presented their original research “Modernist Displays of Mestizo Identity in Covarrubias’ "Mexican Street Scene."
WATCH "We are proud of the spirit of inquiry and discovery that Joyce and Janitza have brought to their work at The Block Museum. Their project exemplifies how the museum is a laboratory where students contribute meaningfully to our daily work.” —Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs
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GRADUATE FELLOW PRESENTATION
REVERSE IMAGE PRINTS BY ENRIQUE CHAGOYA AND MURRY DePILLARS MARCH 16, 2021
On March 16, 2021 Cait DiMartino, Block Museum Art History Fellow 2019-2020 and co-curator of the exhibition For One and All: Prints from The Block Collection, showcased two works by the artists from The Block collection, Untitled (Aunt Jemima Pancake and Waffle Mix) (c.1969) and utopiancannibal.org (2000). By comparing these works, she explored how these artists each use the medium of printmaking in a unique manner as a mechanism for social and political discourse. Murry DePillars was a Chicago artist prominent in the city’s Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and the artist organization AfriCobra. Enrique Chagoya is a California-based artist raised in Mexico City who addresses in both artwork and activism the cultural and political clash between the U.S. and Latin America and U.S. foreign policy. Though to different ends, both artists engage symbols from pop culture and advertisements, reversing, subverting, and ultimately transforming this imagery to address social and political issues.
WATCH GRADUATE FELLOW CONVERSATION
WHAT WOULD HOLD YOU THROUGH THIS MOMENT CONSIDERING CARE & COMMUNITY THROUGH ART MAY 26, 2021
On May 26th, 2021 The Block Museum held a special conversation, “Considering Care and Community Through Art,” with Rikki Byrd, 2020-2021 Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow and curator of the outdoor exhibition Behold, Be Held. In a year that has altered how we approach community, care and art, Byrd shared the challenges and creativity that shaped her curatorial process. She was joined in conversation by Allen Moore and Olivia Tsotsos, project leaders at Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), and the Block’s engagement team, Erin Northington and América Salomón, to discuss the impact of this collaboration with Evanston high school students, and the role of art in fostering community conversations.
WATCH
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I N T E R N S & F E LLO W S hile much of the staff worked offsite for most of the 2020–21 academic year, The Block Museum of Art continued its vital programs of undergraduate internships and graduate fellowships in the curatorial department.
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While much of the staff worked offsite for most of the 2020–21 academic year, The Block Museum of Art continued its vital programs of undergraduate internships and graduate fellowships in the curatorial department. These student opportunities are at the core of our mission, providing curatorial experiences to students and training across disciplines. Interns, fellows, and student workers collaborate with Block staff on various facets of museum work, from planning and developing exhibitions, collections work, researching and writing for publications and exhibitions, campus and community engagement, and exploring changing practices in the museum field. With our new collections database recently launched in fall 2020, the past year presented opportunities for expanding information on the collection, which included research, updating information, and providing new interpretations. Undergraduate curatorial intern Bailey Pekar reviewed titles and translations for the more than 350 lithographs by Honoré Daumier in the collection. In consultation with Associate Curator of Collections, Essi Rönkkö, and several Daumier resources, Bailey updated over 100 translations to be more fluid, idiomatic, and current, while retaining the puns and wordplay 49
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that are critical to Daumier’s work. As Curatorial Research Assistants, sponsored by the Office for Undergraduate Research, Janitza Luna and Joyce Wang worked together to research the lithograph Mexican Street Scene (ca. 1940) by Miguel Covarrubias. Under the guidance of Curatorial Associate Melanie Garcia Sympson and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs Kathleen Bickford Berzock, the students brought new light and understanding to the print and considered broader questions of Mexican-American relations and the complex construction and reception of Mexican identity in mid-century United States. Amelia Mylvaganam, Curatorial Research Aide, a combined major in Radio/Television/Film & Computer Science 2023, just completed her second year at The Block. Amelia worked closely with Melanie to begin adding alt texts (alternative texts), very brief text descriptions of artworks in the collection for vision impaired visitors, on our collections website. This work is crucial to the recent steps we have taken toward making the museum more accessible and inclusive as part of the broader Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) initiatives.
Bailey Pekar presents her final research on Daumier prints to Block Museum staff.
Through considering works like these, which have a very humorous and satirical edge, its just a testament to the power of images overall. I’m a student in the Medill School of Journalism and we’re taught early on how much storytelling can be visual and the usage of photography in telling our stories. It’s interesting to come to a piece of art with that sort of concept in mind, and it really shifts the way that you look at it. –Bailey Pekar, 2020-21 Undergraduate Curatorial Intern
Two Block Graduate Fellows also worked on collections projects. Rikki Byrd, 2020–21 Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, organized the outdoor exhibition Behold, Be Held, curating works of art from the collection that were reproduced and shown on the facades of buildings of the Evanston Campus Arts Circle and Evanston-based community partner Y.O.U. (Youth and Opportunity United). Byrd also worked with The Leadership Project at Y.O.U. to guide high school students in discussions about curating and interpretation. The Block Museum’s 2020–21 Art History Fellow, Bethany Hill, worked with Janet Dees, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, on a brochure that will serve as a resource in connection with the upcoming exhibition Site of Struggle (Winter 2022).
Bethany and Rikki also worked together to develop an online interpretive tool for a work of art in the collection by Chicago artist Margaret Burroughs that will launch in the Fall of 2021. Through student opportunities, we aspire to provide rich and layered work experiences in a university art museum. The programs enable and encourage students to explore different areas of museum work and make their research available to public audiences and, especially for graduate fellows, provide introductions to careers in the humanities.
– Essi Rönkkö,
Associate Curator of Collections
– Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
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Madison Alan-Lee (top left), Tyler Talbott (top right) and Gervais Marsh (bottom) introduce their screening series
SCREENINGS AND CONVERSATIONS
CHICAGO HUMANITIES INITIATIVE FELLOWS 2020-2021
The Northwestern Chicago Humanities Initiative (CHI) program prepares the next generation of humanities scholars to develop community partnerships, reach diverse audiences, and become powerful civic leaders. Beginning in summer 2020 the Block Cinema team worked with graduate students Madison Alan-Lee, Gervais Marsh, and Tyler Talbott, scholars of cinema, media, and cultural representation. Together the cohort will critically considered modes of public programming and online engagement, combining their scholarship with best practices in the field to inform evolving directions for Block Cinema. The partnership concluded with an online series programs exploring the legacies and futures of Black British cinema. The Chicago Humanities Initiative is designed to help PhD students develop as public scholars through hands on, real world experience. The Block embraced the opportunity to mentor a team through the complex process—stem to stern—of developing a public program. This kind of experience empowers our students to collaborate across organizational boundaries, communicate with diverse audiences, and produce work of public value.” —Ruth Curry, Program Director – Chicago Humanities Initiative, Center for Civic Engagement, Northwestern University UNREAL CITY: FILM ESSAYS ON LONDON BY AYO AKINGBADE & REECE AUGUISTE
NOV. 12-13, 2020
For many, London is an imaginary landscape, a composite of images that circulate in art, literature, and popular culture. On November 12, 2020 Block Cinema explored this landscape with Unreal City a program of experimental essay films from the UK. The screening was followed by a discussion with filmmaker Reece Auguiste and Tiff Beatty, Program Director of Arts, Culture & Public Policy at the National Public Housing Museum. Auguiste discussed his influential 1989 work Twilight City which traces Britain’s imperial past to London’s modern physical and demographic upheaval, exploring how gentrification, segregation, and homelessness threaten the future of the city.
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THE LOOSE ENDS OF EMPIRE UNFORGETTING COLONIALISM
FEB. 25-26, 2021
Haunted by the specter of British colonialism, three experimental meditations in sound and image by Keith Piper, Onyeka Igwe, and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa explore memory, amnesia, and empire across thirty years. Together, these works offer visual and sonic bricolages of the remnants of British imperial power, drawing on archival material to critically examine fact and fiction, repression, and remembrance. This screening was followed by a discussion between UK filmmaker Onyeka Igwe and Professor Bimbola Akinbola of the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.
WATCH DISCUSSION THE IMPASSE OF BLACKNESS INTERROGATING THE POSSIBILITY OF RESOLUTION
MAY 9-16, 2021
Bringing together feature-length and short films from the 1980s to the present, this program questioned the possibility of resolution as it relates to the violence of anti-Blackness. Through their work, filmmakers Ngozi Onwurah, Ebun Sodipo, and the collective Languid Hands (Imani Robinson and Rabz Lansiquot) reckon with the afterlives of Trans-Atlantic slavery and colonialism, both in the U.K. and its “former” colonies. Drawing from a range of archival materials and narrative footage, the films interrogate the empty promises of progress, recognizing the constant onslaught of violence that impacts Black life.
WATCH DISCUSSION
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"A bruising gaze" 2021 collaborative image provided by Shabtai Pinchevsky and Katherine Simone Reynolds
MFA THESIS EXHIBITION
A BRUISING GAZE ON A FALTERING LANDSCAPE 2021 ART THEORY AND PRACTICE MFA THESIS EXHIBITION MAY 6 – JUNE 20, 2021
In Spring 2021 the Block Museum was pleased to install A Bruising Gaze on a Faltering Landscape, showcasing the culminating thesis work of Shabtai Pinchevsky and Katherine Simóne Reynolds, candidates of the 2021 MFA degree program in Art, Theory and Practice, Northwestern University. This exhibition was open to the public in the Block's Alsdorf Gallery with confirmed, time-entry reservations. Let us gaze upon a scene that is meant to garner a presence of security. Secure in upholding a false notion pertaining to an archive built on absent concepts. The pairing of a familiar melancholic midwestern landscape with the hermeneutics of a preserved view of Jerusalem, combine to complicate the focus of what actually is being seen, and the implications of a gaze that has been compromised in the process. Through video, sound, sculpture, and installation; This exhibition brings in questions of perception, scene and seen, and whether this gaze is one of warning or surveillance. 53
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Shabtai Pinchevsky, Detail from Safsaf - 1948, 2018, Katherine Simone Reynolds, Diana Smiling, 2021
A BRUISING GAZE ON A FALTERING LANDSCAPE VIRTUAL OPENING RECEPTION
MAY 6, 2021
Zoom Breakout rooms hosted individual works featured in the exhibition and attendees were invited to peruse at their leisure, engage in discussion with fellow visitors, and pose questions to the artists in the “home room.” The evening culminated in a toast to exhibiting artists. Hosted by ATP Assistant Professor Caroline Kent, Shabtai Pinchevsky and Katherine Simóne Reynolds LUNCHTIME GALLERY TALK VIRTUAL WALKTHROUGH
MAY 14, 2021
Exhibiting artists Shabtai Pinchevsky and Katherine Simóne Reynolds hosted a virtual gallery walk-through, conversation and Q&A facilitated by ATP Associate Professor Mike Cloud. Shabtai and Katherine moved through the Alsdorf Gallery, reflecting on both their individual works and their collaboration, revealing an intimate view of the artists’ process and practice.
DOWNLOAD PUBLICATION “How does a country look to the world? How does the world look to a country? And how can the landscape itself be said to have a perspective? Does this not suggest, quite literally, that the landscape looks back in some way at its beholders, returning their gaze with a blank, impassive stare, its face scarred with the traces of violence and destruction and (even more important) with the violent constructions that erupt on its surface?” –W. J. T. Mitchell, Holy Landscape: Israel, Palestine, and the American Wilderness
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ONLINE THESIS SHOWCASE
LOST & FOUND 2021 DOC MEDIA THESIS FILMS JUNE 10 & 11, 2021
Northwestern University continued to build on its reputation for releasing talented film alumni into the world with the sixth consecutive NU DOCS screening event. “Lost and Found” featured nine short films exploring loss or recovery, whether that be of a homeland, family, identity, love, or peace of mind. The MFA films were directed by 2021 graduates from the two-year MFA in Documentary Media program at the School of Communication. The Block Museum hosted 80-minute programs virtually through Eventive. Screenings were followed by a live panel discussion with the filmmakers.
“FREEDOM HILL”
DIR. RESITA COX
Princeville, North Carolina is the first town incorporated by freed, formerly enslaved Africans in America. This historical significance sits on a precipice: the town is gradually being washed away. “HELLO, NOURA”
DIR. NOURA AL SABBOURY KHAYAT
We live a day in the life of Roula Nasser as she lives in Lebanon and reminisces on her intimate relationship with her daughter and how separation continues to inform that relationship across borders. “FALLING LEAVES FROM THE FAMILY TREE”
DIR. CHRIS CHURCHILL
Chris Churchill explores how the legacy of racism within his own family affected two sets of first cousins differently. Churchill’s cousins are bi-racial while he and his siblings are white. Their shared grandfather, a Christian preacher, chose not to have a relationship with his bi-racial grandchildren while having a loving relationship with each of his white grandchildren. “WHEN BEIRUT WAS BEIRUT”
DIR. ALESSANDRA EL CHANTI
If these buildings could talk, what would they say? In this animated documentary, three of Beirut’s monumental buildings come to life and share their stories of Beirut’s unsettling history. “HEJAR”
DIR. ANVAR HASSANPOUR
Hejar is the story of a Kurdish immigrant and family man who must live with the consequences of assuming the identity of Adam, his dead cousin when fleeing wartorn Kurdistan/Northern Iraq decades ago as a child.
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Being found involves discovering new information, a new form of life, a new place, or a new identity. This pandemic has caused many of us to lose things that we never thought we’d have to let go. For each of us, our personal situations may differ, but all of us feel a newly invigorated necessity to discover a new meaning to the things around us. In such uncertainty, we undergo an ever-changing flux of discovery and disappearance. Sometimes that which seems to have disappeared returns to us. Sometimes that which we cherish slips between our fingers. This collection of four short documentary films tells diverse stories of discovery and makes us consider what it means to be found. “THE FIRST WAVE”
DIR. MARILYN OLIVA
Timo Espinoza, a second-generation Latino cannabis legacy operator, and survivor of the war on drugs, transitions his family business from the traditional market to the legal market in the upheaval battle of social equity. “BAYOU FOR US”
DIR. MIZANI BALL
“Bayou for Us” takes us to a lively small street that has become a safe haven and vibrant place of opportunity for Black natives in New Orleans. “LAST RACE”
DIR. JOHN HALEY
In the midst of a whirlwind campaign for elected office in America’s heartland, a political novice navigates the contours of newfound love. “WHITE LOTUS”
DIR. SEAN MOORE
Members of a commune of Buddhists continue their practice after a fire destroys the shrine at the center of their community.
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Curatorial Associate Melanie Garcia Sympson works remotely with intern Madaline Hultquist.
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Youth contributors to the The Block's Behold Be Held exhibition, join a discussion in front of the installation at Evanston's Youth, Opportunity, United Building
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2020-21 FOCUS:
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
STUDENT RESEARCH & LEADERSHIP
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Student filmmakers at Evanston Township High School
FILM FESTIVAL
YOUNG PEOPLE’S RACE, POWER & TECHNOLOGY June 24, 2021 In partnership with the TREE Lab in Northwestern's School of Education and Social Policy, the Block Museum presented the Young People’s Race Power and Technology (YPRPT) project’s second annual film screening online. After six months of a fully online program guided by an innovative participatory curriculum, YPRPT’s second run culminated with nine short documentaries that investigate ethical and social possibilities and perils wrought by new technologies. The 2021 iteration of YPRPT was a six-month collaboration with twelve community organizations and schools in Chicago and Evanston: HANA Center, Family Matters, 826CHI, Free Spirit Media, Outreach Community Church, Project Impact 180, Evanston Present and Future, Hansberry College Prep, Evanston Township High School, Northside College Prep, Sullivan High School, and Johnson College Prep. All nine of the short films created in the 2021 YPRPT program were made available to watch for a 7-day period on the Block’s channels. A live screening of three YPRPT films selected by the student filmmakers took place on Thursday, June 24, followed by a live audience Q&A with the artists and program participants.
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Throughout the remote year The Block Museum of Art welcomed the opportunity to meet virtually with groups and partners for conversations that explore objects from the Block’s collection
PARTNERSHIP
ARTS OF LIFE Founded in 2000, Arts of Life advances the creative arts community by providing artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities a collective space to expand their practice and strengthen their leadership. In Spring 2021 The Arts of Life team met with Block curator Corinne Granof to discuss the ways that artists use prints to circulate ideas, communicate messages and advance social activism. Granof led a virtual tour of the exhibition For One and All: Prints from The Block’s Collection. Block Museum docent Brianna Heath was also able to visit with the Arts of Life team to lead a discussion around Deborah Roberts’s She’s Mighty, Mighty (2017) and Jim Nutt’s Twixt (1997). Together the group discussed the complexities of portraiture and “what’s at stake” in representing an individual through art.
Discussion with Center for Center for Aphasia Research
Discussion with Art of Life
PARTNERSHIP
CENTER FOR APHASIA RESEARCH & TREATMENT AT THE SHIRLEY RYAN ABILITYLAB In Winter 2020, Block Museum staff had the pleasure of connecting with the Book Club of the Center for Aphasia Research & Treatment at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Like us, this group had been reading the One Book One Northwestern selection Just Mercy. The club talked with Block staff about works in the museum collection that resonate with the text. Together they discussed the relationship between image and text, how authors like Bryan Stevenson use storytelling to reveal shared humanity, and how works by Donna Ferrato, Prentiss Taylor and Jacob Lawrence resonate with the power of visual art and social justice today.
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PARTNERSHIP
THE LEADERSHIP PROJECT The Block’s Engagement Department was proud to continue its years-long history of collaboration with Evanston’s Y.O.U. (Youth & Opportunity United), a youth development agency that provides services and leadership to meet the emerging needs of young people and their families in our community. the organization’s high school program The Leadership Project, is focused on exploring the intersections of race and class through research, art, and discussions.
WINTER 2021
MAPPING IDENTITY In their Winter 2021 sessions, Leadership Project students were engaging in discussions around “how Eurocentrism has impacted the ways people and their bodies are policed.” The Block sought to offer works in the collection that might serve to frame these issues through art. Immediately, educators were drawn to contemporary artist Deborah Roberts’ collage work She’s Mighty, Mighty (2017). “She’s Mighty, Mighty seemed an apt lens through which to examine ideas of body policing–the assessment and attempted control of our exteriorities by means of these very notions of beauty,” said Block Museum educator América Salomón. Salomón and Erin Northington, The Block’s Associate Director of Campus and Community Engagement, joined a number of The Leadership Project’s regular Zoom sessions, first introducing students to Roberts’ work through facilitated discussion, and then asking them to consider their own identities–exterior and interior, seen and unseen–through an artmaking activity in Roberts’ own medium of collage. The Engagement team talked with students about Deborah Roberts’ artistic approach and how the artist’s perspectives around her work influenced their own interpretations. Over a series of weeks students created their own collage “self-portraits” which were displayed in the windows of the Y.O.U. building.
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Student collage inspired by the work of artist Deborah Roberts displayed in window of Y.O.U building.
Students of The Leadership Project in front of their selections
SPRING 2021
BEHOLD, BE HELD In spring, students of The Leadership Project examined aspects of the school-to-prison pipeline, such as the War on Drugs, racism in education, and abolition. They also discussed how marginalized communities are grappling with the devastating effects of these systems. Although the pipeline was developed to systematically inhibit the progress of Black and brown communities, communities show resilience by coming together and pushing back. As part of their weekly discussions this semester, Leadership Project students collaborated with The Block Museum of Art’s outdoor exhibition, Behold, Be Held, which reproduces artworks from the museum’s permanent collection and invited visitors to reflect on how art holds us through moments of crisis. Students discussed how white supremacist structures, like the school-to-prison pipeline, impact young people and reflected on the diversity they see in their community. They worked with curator Rikki Byrd to select two artworks to support these ideas. These selections appeared on the windows of the Y.O.U Building in Evanston. Two Worlds also appeared at The Block Museum location, acknowledging the mutual partnership and connection between The Block and Y.O.U. Student reflections on the works were shared online at beholdbeheld.org
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2020-21 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
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Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)
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Evanston Township High School
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The Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
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Arts of Life
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YWCA Evanston / North Shore Equity Institute
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Shorefront Legacy Center
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Youth and Young Adult Services, City of Evanston
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TREE Lab
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Dario Robleto (American, born 1972), After exciting news a change occurs almost like that due to fainting, 1870, from the portfolio The First Time, The Heart (A Portrait of Life 1854 - 1913), 2017, Photolithograph. 11 1/2 × 14 1/4 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Northwestern Engineering, 2018.6.6
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2020-21 FOCUS:
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Throughout 2020-21 robust programming stemmed from The Block Museum’s collaborations that centered artist perspectives. Presented online in both live and prerecorded offerings, these intimate discussions allowed the opportunity to hear from artists and filmmakers directly tt. Each program also offered the opportunity to partner with departments across Northwestern University to broaden and extend curricular reach and vision.
FILM SCREENING
MAJDHAR (1984) WITH FILMMAKER AHMED JAMAL JANUARY 28-31, 2021
This groundbreaking drama was among the first to bring the inner lives and struggles of South Asian communities to popular audiences in the UK. With sensitivity and wry humor, Majdhar tells the story of Fauzia (Rita Wolf), a Pakistani woman seeking to build a life for herself in London after her arranged marriage falls apart. Produced by the Retake Film and Video Collective, the first all-Asian organization to emerge during the fertile “workshop era” of British collaborative independent filmmaking, Majdhar was broadcast on the UK's Channel 4 in 1984–a watershed moment in diasporic cinema. The Block’s presentation of Majdhar featured a weeklong screening and pre-recorded discussion with director and Retake Film and Video Collective co-founder Ahmed Alauddin Jamal. The conversation was moderated by Swagato Chakravorty, a doctoral candidate in Film Studies and Art History at Yale University, who will also provided an introduction to the film. This program is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
WATCH DISCUSSION
Post screening discussion with Ahmed Aluddin and Swagato Chakravorty
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Artist Fox Maxy
SCREENING & CONVERSATION
FILMS BY FOX MAXY WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE? NOVEMBER 5, 202O
On November 5, 2020 Block Cinema welcomed California-based artist Fox Maxy (Ipai Kumeyaay and Payómkawichum) for a screening and conversation of his work. The works in the program, California Girls (2018), Maat Means Land (2020), and San Diego (2020), offered a prismatic and timely vision of the artist’s home state, viewed through the lens of Indigenous identity and culture. Drawing on the visual language of Instagram and the associative logic of experimental montage, Maxy’s practice imagines strategies of knowing and caring for the land–and for resisting the forces of colonialism and extraction that threaten it. Following the screening, Maxy was joined in discussion by filmmaker, photographer, and University of Chicago postdoctoral fellow in Anthropology Teresa Montoya (Diné) as well as Michael Metzger, the Block’s Curator of Media Arts. The program was presented in conjunction with the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. The films and discussion were streamed live and made available for 24 hours afterward through the Block’s Vimeo page.
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Dreaming Rivers post screening discussion
ONLINE SCREENING & CONVERSATION
76 DAYS APRIL 7 & 8, 2021
The Block partnered with the Department of RTVF for a special screening of Oscar nominated documentary 76 DAYS. This gripping documentary follows the urgent effort to contain and treat the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China in the first months of the pandemic. Shot across four hospitals in the province, 76 DAYS captures scenes of chaos, empathy, and resilience, as medical workers contend with supply shortages and exhaustion while fighting the unknown disease. The screening included a live discussion with co-director Hao Wu (All in my Family, People’s Republic Of Desire) with NU Professor Zayd Dohrn and University of Chicago Associate Professor Rachel DeWoskin. Co-presented by the Block Museum of Art with the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University.
ONLINE SCREENING & CONVERSATION
DREAMING RIVERS, WEAVING COLLECTIVES WITH FILMMAKER JUDAH ATTILLE, CAIRO CLARKE & HAN HEUNG MEDIA COLLECTIVE APRIL 7 & 8, 2021
“Dreaming Rivers, Weaving Collectives” presented a short film from the visionary UK collective Sankofa Film and Video. Sankofa Film and Video Collective was founded by Judah Attille and her contemporaries following the 1981 Brixton riots in the UK, to make critical interventions into Eurocentric film theory and practice. Sankofa founding filmmaker Judah Attille joined LUX curatorial fellow Cairo Clarke and members of han heung 한흥 恨興 media collective in an intergenerational dialogue with members of contemporary film and media collectives in the US and UK. han heung takes inspiration from Sankofa’s legacy to study, critique, and apply similar collective interventions to current moving image practice. The program was and conversation curated by the Feminist-in-Residence at Northwestern’s Women’s Center Hankyeol Song. Dreaming Rivers appeared courtesy of Women Make Movies. The screening was Co-presented by the Block Museum of Art with the Women’s Center at Northwestern University. The program streamed for free for three days.
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ONLINE SCREENING & CONVERSATION
SHORT FILMS BY GARRETT BRADLEY MAY 24 – 28, 2021
Leading up to the release of her celebrated 2020 documentary Time, director Garrett Bradley honed her poetic voice and keen eye for detail in a series of remarkable shorts. In conjunction with her residency as 2021’s Hoffman Visiting Artist for Documentary Media, the Block presented three of these films: Like (2016), The Earth is Humming (2018), and America (2019). On Thursday, May 27 Block Cinema and the School of Communication at Northwestern hosted a live screening of America, followed by a live conversation between Garrett Bradley and Prof. Huey Copeland (BFC Presidential Associate Professor of Art History, University of Pennsylvania), with audience Q&A. Garrett Bradley is the School of Communication’s 2021 Hoffman Visiting Artist for Documentary Media, a short-term filmmaker residency funded by Jane Steiner Hoffman and Michael Hoffman. Co-presented by The Block Museum of Art with support from MFA in Documentary Media and Northwestern School of Communication.
Still from America (2019)
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FILM SCREENING
1960s CINÉMA DIRECT ACTION STUDENT ACTIVISM IN FRANCOPHONE DOCUMENTARY APRIL 25 - MAY 1, 2021
Cinema Direct Action presented two feature films from the early years of cinema verité and direct cinema movements, offering alternative visions for filming student activism. This program, curated by Northwestern doctoral candidate Tamara Tasevska, brought together two Francophone filmmakers, Jean Rouch and Pierre Perrault, who pioneered innovative documentary forms that reflected a younger generation’s demands for radical change in the 1960s. In The Human Pyramid (1961), French cinéaste Jean Rouch collaborates with young Black and white lycée students in Ivory Coast, challenging segregation through a hybrid of documentary and fiction. Acadia, Acadia?!? (1971), co-directed by Pierre Perrault and Rouch collaborator Michel Brault, follows the student-led struggle for Francophone recognition in New Brunswick, Canada, encouraging its young protagonists to interrogate one another’s beliefs, attitudes, and activist practices . This screening ran for one week and on Wednesday, April 28 Block Cinema hosted a discussion about the films with Tamara Tasevska (Northwestern doctoral candidate in French and Francophone Studies), Scott Durham (Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Northwestern), and Nora Alter (Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University and author of The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction). Co-presented by the Block Museum of Art with the Department of French and Italian at Northwestern University.
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Dario Robleto
ARTIST TALK
DARIO ROBLETO THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC STORYTELLING MAY 24 – 28, 2021
In this lecture, Artist-at-Large Dario Robleto shared the deep connections between art and science through his creative research methods, narrative storytelling and exploration of material science and sculpture. Robleto, whose work is born out of cross-disciplinary research and collaboration, works across sculpture, installation, and sound to explore the intersections of music, popular culture, language, storytelling, and the histories of science and war. In spring 2018, Northwestern Engineering and the Block Museum of Art welcomed Robleto at Northwestern as part of its Artist-at-Large program. In winter 2023, the Block Museum and McCormick will present an original exhibition of and publication on Robleto’s work, The Aorta of an Archivist. This online Dean’s Seminar lecture was co-presented by The Block Museum of Art and the McCormick School of Engineering
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Gerard Mercator, Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio, 1595
LECTURE SERIES
PASSAGES LECTURES ON EARLY MODERN GLOBALISM The Block was proud to partner on two lectures on early modern globalism by Elizabeth Rodini, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome and founder of the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University. Centering on objects from the Muslim world that passed into and also through Venice in the early modern period, these programs explored how we think and talk about mobility and distance as vectors of meaning, historically and in the present. Elizabeth Rodini was in conversation with by Lia Markey, Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies, The Newberry Library Elizabeth Rodini is Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome and founder of the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University. Her work joins scholarship in the history of art, curatorial practice, and museology. Presented by The Global Early Modern Group and The Buffet Institute for Global Affairs in collaboration with The Block Museum of Art
THERE AND BACK AGAIN: TRACKING GENTILE BELLINI’S PORTRAIT OF SULTAN MEHMED II
DECEMBER 3, 2020
In 1480 the sultan of the Ottoman Empire commissioned a portrait from a Venetian painter. The complex, multiply entangled journey of this picture from its production to the present raises both historiographical challenges and opportunities, as well as questions regarding uncertainty, abscence, and loss.
ITINERANT OBJECTS: EARLY MODERN MOBILITY AND THE SPACES IN BETWEEN
DECEMBER 8, 2020
Centering on objects from the Muslim world that passed into and also through Venice in the early modern period, this workshop explored how we think and talk about mobility and distance as vectors of meaning, historically and in the present, in practices of research, writing, and museum display. 75
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Róisín Tapponi, photography by Jakob Grant
ARTIST TALK
RÓISÍN TAPPONI OF THE HABIBI COLLECTIVE ARCHIVAL STUDIES IN ARAB WOMEN'S ESSAY FILM OCTOBER 26, 2020
In this talk, the London-based curator, writer and editor Róisín Tapponi explored the role of the archive in Arab women's essay film, as a narrative subject, a structural form and a field underexplored in the region. Incorporating discussion of oral histories, found footage and material conditions, she asked what role the past has in the future of Arab women's cinema. Róisín Tapponi is the founder of Habibi Collective, a digital archive and curatorial platform for MENA women’s filmmaking. She was one of the curators of Liberating History: Arab Feminisms and Mediated Pasts, a series of screenings and discussions in October 2021. Simran Bhalla and Malia Haines-Stewart, series co-curators participated in this talk. This program was presented by Middle East and North African Studies in partnership with The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
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The Block Museum programming in 2020-21 could be enjoyed from anywhere
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Student Docent Fiona Asokacitta studies works in the Block Collection
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COLLECTION DATABASE WORK
PRODUCTIVE CONSTRAINTS WRITING ALT TEXTS AT THE BLOCK ONGOING PROJECT
As The Block pivoted to online engagement our staff continued to consider how to center equity and inclusion in our digital work. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Collections team, almost 6,000 high resolution images of artworks in the collection are now visible on our new public-facing collections site. After the site’s launch in fall 2020, we began to think about how to make the site more accessible to visitors who are blind or visually impaired. Melanie Garcia Sympson, Curatorial Associate, enlisted Amelia Mylvaganam (Radio/ Television/Film & Computer Science 2023), Curatorial Research Aide, in launching a pilot program to add alternative texts (or “alt texts”) to artworks our collection database. Alt texts are short descriptions of images, typically 10-15 words, and around 100 characters long, that are read by screen readers as users navigate websites and apps. This feature is vital for individuals who are visually impaired. The pair began by seeking guidance from AccessibleNU and researching best practices created by colleagues at other museums, before drawing up a plan and a style guide for the Block’s own alt-text work. Working alongside student researchers Janitza Luna and Joyce Wang in Spring 2021, Melanie and Amelia have already added alt texts for about 350 works, or 6% of the collection. Creating these texts has been a learning process, one that raised questions around how anyone, regardless of ability, views and accesses artwork.
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COLLECTION DATABASE WORK
ART, ACCESS, AND AGENCY TALK WITH GALLERY SYSTEMS ABOUT THE BLOCK’S ONLINE COLLECTION ONGOING PROJECT
Northwestern University’s The Block Museum of Art is placing a stronger focus on its digital initiatives in a resounding response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a teaching and learning museum, the institution is upholding its mission statement of “presenting art across time, cultures, and media” by pursuing innovative ways to open its doors virtually to students, faculty, and the public. Through staff’s recent efforts, The Block launched a new eMuseum online collections site, actively hosting virtual tours through its 6,000-object collection, and collaborating with Northwestern to bring (formerly in-person) events online, creating an interdisciplinary experience for audiences. Our eMuseum is powered by Gallery Systems, a software development company whose interwoven suite of collections management solutions have been used by the world’s most elite museums and institutions. They learned about these dynamic changes at The Block and interviewed Melanie Garcia Sympson, The Block's Curatorial Associate. Melanie gave a closer look at what roles curatorial teams can play in undertaking online collections and projects, while sharing how collections management software shapes research and learning in a university setting.
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COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
SPOTLIGHT SERIES The Block Collection Spotlight series invites a closer look at objects in the Block Museum permanent collection from students, staff, faculty, and museum audiences. The monthly blog allows for new scholarship and new perspectives on collection work. SCOTTSBORO LIMITED, PRENTISS TAYLOR
BY CORINNE GRANOF
Taylor’s image of the Scottsboro case, paired with Hughes’s spare and powerful language, became an indictment against racism that was rampant in society and especially in the judicial system. Along with the other prints in the series, Scottsboro Limited, is an example of the belief that art can play a role in repairing society. EBOLA TIMES, EMMANUEL BAKARA DAOU
BY KATHLEEN BICKFORD BERZOCK
With Le temps Ebola, Daou used photography to witness and communicate the physical and psychological toll of trauma. Together the six photographs in the series evoke the anticipation, confusion, and urgency of a sudden public health crisis. With imagery that moves from the surreal reality of makeshift emergency centers to the uncanny fiction of an all-too-real “what if” scenario that envisions the virus entering Mali’s largest city, Daou’s photographs unflinchingly probe how an epidemic raises awareness of the razor’s edge between life and death and invites reflection on the proximity of the supernatural. RUE TRANSNONAIN, ON APRIL 15, 1834, HONORÉ DAUMIER
BY BAILEY PEKAR
The somber tone of this scene distinguishes Rue Transnonain from the rest of Daumier’s oeuvre of social and political commentary. In this image, there is no caricature or witty comment. Instead, he is using his skill to show the story of what happened on April 15, 1834, on Rue Transnonain, documenting an historical event of government-sponsored violence against its own people. He toes the line between news and art in an era before photography, before instantaneous sharing via social media and the internet. CHICAGO, ILL., CHARLES SWEDLUND BY CORINNE GRANOF
Swedlund’s interest in process and visual experimentation perhaps begins with Chicago, Ill., with its obscured figure, stark lighting contrasts. The work combines Swedlund’s early interest in the city as theme—one he shared with many of his ID colleagues (including his teachers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, as well as students Wayne Miller, Ray Metzger, Barbara Crane, and Richard Nickel)—with his growing interest in the technical possibilities of the camera and in representing the world in a non-objective way. MEXICAN STREET SCENED, MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS
BY MELANIE GARCIA SYMPSON
Research by Luna and Wang helped us understand the social and historical contexts of Mexican Street Scene – on the surface, a seemingly simple nostalgic print. We began to understand the generalized title and depiction of rural figures as representative of the pride of an artist determined to shine a light on the important contributions of Mexican artists to the international modernist movement. At the same time, the print can be understood within the practice of appropriating folk and indigenous culture to present a more unified Mexican (and often flattened) identity.
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“The Hollanders’ generous gifts have become the foundation of our modern photography collection here at The Block; Steichen’s works are in continuous circulation and study by students and researchers who make active use of our Eloise W. Martin Study Center. We are honored to fulfill the Hollanders’ goals of ensuring greater public access to Steichen’s remarkable art,” –Lisa Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director, The Block Museum of Art
Edward Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879 - 1973) Amelia Earhart, for Vanity Fair 1931 Gelatin silver print 10 × 8 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Richard and Jackie Hollander in memory of Ellyn Lee Hollander 2019.29.28
ACQUISITION NEWS
THIRD MAJOR GIFT OF STEICHEN PHOTOGRAPHS BROADENS BLOCK MUSEUM TEACHING COLLECTION OCTOBER 06, 2020
Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art has acquired 41 silver gelatin and platinum prints by renowned American artist Edward Steichen from collectors Richard and Jackie Hollander. The donation broadens the museum’s already significant holding of vintage prints by Steichen. The gift is the third to the museum from the Hollander family, who donated 49 Steichen prints to The Block in 2013, and 44 in 2017. The extraordinary new group of works includes portraits of historical figures such as Carl Sandburg, Amelia Earhart and Thomas Mann; examples of the artist’s commercial advertising images for brands such as Kodak and Jergens; fashion studies for Vogue and Vanity Fair; and early photographic experiments executed in the late 19th century during the artist’s teenage years. Regarded as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, Steichen (1879–1973) transformed the medium through his innovations in portrait, fashion, theater, horticultural and advertising photography.
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ACQUISITION NEWS
THE BLOCK RECEIVES GIFT OF POSTERS BY ARGENTINEAN POP ARTIST EDGARDO GIMÉNEZ OCTOBER 06, 2020
The Block Museum proudly announces a gift of mid-twentieth century posters that significantly expands its holdings of Latin American art, graphic design, and Pop Art. In recognition of the presentation of the exhibition Pop América, 1965–1975 (fall 2019), The Block has received a donation of 18 archival posters by Edgardo Giménez (Argentinean, born 1942). A generous gift from the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), New York, these works contribute to the museum’s goals to acquire work with rich connections to Northwestern’s curriculum and deepen its representation of modern and contemporary culture from international perspectives. Established in 2011, The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) is dedicated to increasing the visibility of Latin American art on a global scale. Since its creation, ISLAA has played an international role in fostering advanced research and public engagement in the field. ISLAA views fine arts and graphic design as being intricately related, and understands posters as a fundamental element within the larger narrative of art history.
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Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942), Untitled (Fuera de caja proof), 1970, Offset lithograph on paper. 14 3/4 × 22 inches. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.15
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2020 - 2021 ACQUISITIONS Stephanie Alaniz (American, born 1991) We Are What Make America Great, from the portfolio The Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and screenprint on paper 15 x 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.1 Brett Anderson (American) The Reoccuring Nightmare, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and screenprint on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.3 Marty Azevedo (American, born 1982) The Pit, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.2 Michael Barnes (American, born 1969) Stimulus Maximus, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Hand-colored lithograph on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.4 Sasha Bitzer (American, born 1988) Beneath the Daisies, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.5 John Cage (American, 1912–1992) Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel 1969 Eight silkscreens on Plexiglas on wood base 15 × 14 1/2 × 24 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray Collection 2021.9.1
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Chuck Close (American, born 1940) Self-Portrait 2007 Color screenprint on paper 74 1/2 × 57 3/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Robert and Diane Saltzman 2020.12 Sydney Cross (American, born 1955) Vanity, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.6
Jesus Santa Cruz (Mexican-American) Destroyer and Chief, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Stone lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.26 Andrew DeCaen (American, born 1974) Drop Leaf, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and screenprint on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.7
"Seven Imitate is a suite of seven prints and are examples of how Brendan Fernandes works at the intersection of dance and visual arts, reflecting themes of otherness, colonialism, and institutional critique. The prints were made during several research visits to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. There Fernandes worked with The Justin and Elisabeth Lang Collection of African Art at the university museum, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. These visual collages call attention to the dislocation of objects through colonization, appropriation, and cultural tourism. The dancer’s limbs and body parts are playfully manipulated to merge with African art objects. The collapsing of dance forms an collected objects raises questions about the display and discursive frameworks that shape understanding of African art within Western museums. In the images and title, Fernandes has adapted the idea of the imitator in West African masquerade and ritual. According to Fernandes, the imitator serves as a trickster character, often appearing as a hybrid of human and animal form These forms and ideas have personal relevance in Fernandes’s work and life, as well. The recombinations of forms recall Fernandes’s life experiences as a classically trained ballet dancer and as an immigrant from Kenya. By combining the ballet body fragments with the African art and artifacts, Fernandes reanimates objects that are removed from their cultural origins in a sense and makes dynamic, vital, and playful collages that emphasize hybridity and adaptable nature of identity. – Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
Brendan Fernandes (Canadian, born Kenya, 1979) Seven Imitate I-VII 2015 Seven siligraph prints on paper 42 × 29 3/4 inches each Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Anne, Beth, Michael, and Charlie Kaplan 2021.7.1-7
TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: 2021.7.1, 2021.7.3, 2021.7.4 2021.7.5, 2021.7.6, 2021.7.7
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Filmed on location in Harlem, New York, and in Claude Monet’s historic gardens in Giverny, France, The Giverny Suite is a multi-textured cinematic poem that meditates on the safety and bodily autonomy of Black women. The work unleashes an arsenal of techniques and materials, including direct animation on archival 16mm film, woman-on-the-street interviews, and montage editing, to explore the creative virtuosity of Black femme performance figures while interrogating the histories of those bodies as spaces of forced labor and commodified production. – Ja'Tovia Gary, artist statement
Ja'Tovia Gary (American, born 1984) The Giverny Suite 2019 Three-channel video installation, color / black and white, with stereo sound, 39:56 minutes, loop Variable dimensions Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Julie and Lawrence Bernstein Family Art Acquisition Fund purchase 2020.8
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Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Edgardo Giménez en la galería Rioboo 1964 Lithograph on paper 22 1/2 × 14 1/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.1
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Dalila Puzzovio – La matabrujas de más calidad 1965 Lithograph on paper 23 3/16 × 15 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.7
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Arte 67 1967 Offset lithograph on paper 23 3/16 × 14 3/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.13
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Néstor Cruz: Expone dibujos de la (serie de los ministerios) 1964 Lithograph on paper 23 3/16 × 11 9/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.2
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Edgardo Giménez – En la duda: un enano 1965 Lithograph on paper 22 1/2 × 15 9/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.8
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Edgardo Giménez Edgardo Giménez Edgardo Giménez 1967 Lithograph on paper 9 3/8 × 22 5/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.14
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Danza. Primera aproximación 1964 Offset lithograph on paper 23 3/16 × 16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.3
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Luis Felipe Noé Conferencia – La creación en un país joven y subdesarrollado 1965 Lithograph on paper 15 1/2 × 20 3/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.9
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Untitled (Fuera de caja proof) 1970 Offset lithograph on paper 14 3/4 × 22 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.15
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Guzmán Loza – Galería Rioboo 1964 Silkscreen on paper 23 5/8 × 10 1/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.4
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Edgardo Giménez – Las Panteras Objetos 1966 Offset lithograph on paper 13 15/16 × 23 3/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.10
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Love (Butterfly) 1970 Color silkscreen on paper 10 1/4 × 9 1/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.16
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Antonio Berni dialoga sobre su obra con Eduardo González Lanuza 1965 Silkscreen on paper 23 1/8 × 16 1/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.5
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Los medios audiovisuales en la comunidad contemporánea 1966 Offset lithograph on paper 23 × 15 1/2 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.11
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Un cuarto de mujer 1981 Offset lithograph on paper 28 5/8 × 18 3/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.17
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Carlos Squirru – Produzca más, modifique su esqueleto 1965 Lithograph on paper 23 3/16 × 15 1/2 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.6
Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Narcisa Hirsch con Walter Mejía en Concepción – vida – muerte y transfiguración 1966 Offset lithograph on paper 23 × 16 7/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.12
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Edgardo Giménez (Argentine, born 1942) Jorge Romero Brest – Homenaje 1989 Offset lithograph on paper 28 1/16 × 15 5/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) 2020.10.18
We are honored that the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art has chosen The Block Museum of Art among the national institutions to house this work. These vibrant posters will be widely utilized in teaching and learning across Northwestern by students studying advertising, design, and Latin American culture and politics among many other disciplines. –Lisa Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director, The Block Museum of Art COLLECTION ACQUISITIONS AND LOANS
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Michelle Goans (American, born 1988) This Pussy Grabs Back, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.8 Dan Heskamp (American, born 1985) Soft- Spoken, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.9 Pearl Hirshfield (American, born 1922) Transfer drawing on film for the print Pieta 1975 Black media on transparent film 24 1/4 × 18 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Pearl Hirshfield 2020.13.1 Pearl Hirshfield (American, born 1922) Transfer drawing on film for the print Pieta 1975 Black media on opaque film with white lettering 24 1/4 × 18 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Pearl Hirshfield 2020.13.2
"Pietá is an anti-war image of a mother and deceased and brutalized son. Hirshfield, who has been an artist and activist in Chicago throughout her life, created this work in 1975, nearing the end of the Vietnam War or shortly after. The imagery picks up on the classic iconography of a Pietá and uses Renaissance composition of a mother with her dead son on her lap. The body of the boy is dismembered, and the abdomen is open as if the work were a medical illustration showing the abdominal cavity. With severed limbs and organs exposed, the boy is a sacrifice to the senseless cause of war. The work alludes to the tragic loss of life through names of boys who were killed as soldiers, although it is not known whether the names have specific references." –Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
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Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) March Winds (top) and April Showers (bottom), from Harper’s Weekly, April 2, 1859 1859 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.1 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Christmas boxes in Camp, from Harper’s Weekly, January 4, 1862 1862 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 1/16 x 11 5/16 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.2 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) The Surgeon at Work at the Rear during an Engagement; The War for the Union, 1862—the Bayonet Charge 1862, from Harper’s Weekly, July 12, 1862 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.3
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Rebels Outside Their Works at Yorktown; Union Cavalry and Artillery; Charge of the First Massachusetts Regiment, from Harper’s Weekly, May 17, 1862 1862 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.4 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Thanksgiving in Camp, from Harper’s Weekly, November 29,1862 1862 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.5 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Home from the War, from Harper’s Weekly, June 13, 1863 1863 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.6
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) The Great Russian Ball at the Academy of Music, from Harper’s Weekly, November 21, 1863 1863 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 1/4 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.7 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Our Watering Places—The Empty Sleeve at Newport; Horse Races at Saratoga, from Harper’s Weekly, August 26, 1865 1865 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 1/8 x 11 1/4 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.8 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Christmas Belles, from Harper’s Weekly, January 2, 1869 1869 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 1/4 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.9
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2020 - 2021 ACQUISITIONS Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) On the Beach, from Harper’s Weekly, August 17, 1872 1872 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 1/4 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.10
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Raid on a Sand Swallow Colony. How many Eggs?, from Harper’s Weekly, June 13, 1874 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 × 11 3/8 × 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.14
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Under the Falls—Catskills Mountains, from Harper’s Weekly, September 14, 1872 1872 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 1/4 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.11
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Seesaw, Gloucester Massachusetts, from Harper’s Weekly, September 12, 1874 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 3/8 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.15
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Waiting for a Bite, from Harper’s Weekly, August 22, 1874 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 3/16 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.12
Harper’s Weekly, January 8, 1859 1859 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 × 11 1/16 × 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.16
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Gathering Berries, from Harper’s Weekly, July 11, 1874 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 x 11 3/16 x 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.13
Harper’s Weekly, July 9, 1859 1859 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 7/8 × 11 1/8 × 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.17
Harper’s Weekly, February 6, 1864 1864 Wood engraving on newsprint 15 15/16 × 11 3/8 × 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.18 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) The Seceding Mississippi Delegation in Congress, from Harper’s Weekly, February 2, 1861 1861 Wood engraving on newsprint 16 × 11 3/8 × 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Michael Lukasiewicz and Martha Tedeschi 2021.2.19 Matthew Hopson- Walker (American, born 1976) Head Hedonist, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Stone and photolithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.10 Rashid Johnson (American, born 1977) Untitled (Anxious Man) 2015 Black soap and wax on white ceramic tile 74 × 47 × 3 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Kruger Family 2020.9.1 [OPPOSITE PAGE]
"In this work, Rashid Johnson uses black soap, a cleanser composed of natural materials including plant ash and coconut oil. Black soap originates from West Africa and is traditionally sold by Afro-centric vendors in the United States. The chaotic circular cuts within the work’s distinctive topography, created by melting and pouring the soap, contradict the orderly rhythm of the white porcelain tile background. This act of subtraction reveals an abstracted head, suggesting a literal stripping away of Black identities. Untitled (Anxious Man) makes public unwitnessed moments when the ever-present anxiety, fear, and neurosis of living as a Black man in the United States surface. In a recent interview, the artist questions, “How does the Black body function in space when it’s being witnessed, versus when it is not?” —Mina Pembe Malaz ’21, Art History and Psychology
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Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6900 South Ashland, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 1/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.1
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6720 South Ashland, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.3
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6329 South Paulina, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.5 [LEFT]
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6327 South Hermitage, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.7
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6925 North Ashland, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 1/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.2
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6720 North Ashland, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.4
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6330 North Paulina, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.6 [RIGHT]
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6333 North Hermitage, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.8
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"When looking at Tonika Johnson’s work, I think of the ever-changing landscape that is Chicago. It is a city known for its racially segregated neighborhoods but also for the rapid gentrification happening within these spaces. During my early childhood, I lived in the neighborhood of Pilsen. Whenever I pass through the area now, I see the ways the neighborhood has changed and continues to change. Although more resources are being brought in, I question who gets to benefit from them. In the Folded MapTM Project, Johnson connects residents who share corresponding addresses on the same street, but on the North and South sides of Chicago. Photographing both locations, she showcases the differences in available funding and resources between neighborhoods. Johnson’s project and the interactions she facilitates between residents question the racial dynamics at play. " Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6135 South Wolcott, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.9
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6514 South Damen, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.11
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6129 North Wolcott, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 1/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.10
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) 6516 North Damen, Chicago, from the series Folded Map™ Project 2017 Pigment print 16 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin and Peter Erickson in honor of the commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion pledged in 2021 by the Block’s staff and Board of Advisors 2021.4.12
—Cristobal Alday ’18, Art History and Latino/a Studies, Block Curatorial Intern 2016
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) Twins Nanette and Wade together on Wade’s porch, from the series Map Twins, Folded Map™ Project 2018 Inkjet print on paper 24 × 36 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the artist 2021.11.1
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) Wade in front of Nanette’s home, from the series Map Twins, Folded Map™ Project 2018 Inkjet print on paper 18 × 24 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the artist 2021.11.3
Tonika Lewis Johnson (American, born 1979) Nanette on Wade’s porch, from the series Map Twins, Folded Map™ Project 2018 Inkjet print on paper 18 × 24 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the artist 2021.11.2
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"Two large-scale photographs by artist Vardi Kahana document and reflect on the state of museums during the COVID pandemic in 2020. Part of the series, The Art of Social Distancing, the photographs were taken at the Tel Aviv Museum in spring 2020. In general, they foreground the empty spaces, without visitors. The Art of Social Distancing #10, Jeff Koons at the TLV Museum shows an exhibition that had opened, but was closed to the public shortly after opening. A masked museum staff member walks through the gallery and gives a sense of the scale of the sculpture. The large-scale, brightly colored, shiny Balloon Dog is the only artwork visible in the large gallery space. In a recent phone call, Kahana spoke about capturing the absurdity of this major artwork essentially stuck in a mid-sized museum during the pandemic." -Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
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"In this work Deborah Kass appropriates the style of Pop artist Andy Warhol’s painting of Chairman Mao, leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1976 (below). Kass replaces Mao with an image of Gertrude Stein, a writer, art collector, prominent LGBTQ+ icon, and cultural figure of the 20th century. Warhol’s painting undermines Mao’s authoritarian persona by decorating (or defacing) his image with playful colors and scribbles. Kass applies similar techniques to her image of Stein, whose intense expression contrasts with the bright colors and subtle suggestions of makeup around the left eye and mouth. However, unlike the stark contrast between Mao’s infamous reputation and the way he is portrayed by Warhol, Kass’s Chairman Ma presents a more ambiguous commentary on Stein. The portrait is neither obviously subversive nor simply celebratory. " —Chayda Harding ’22, History
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2020 - 2021 ACQUISITIONS Vardi Kahana (Israeli, born 1959) The Art of Social Distancing #10, Jeff Koons at the TLV Museum 2020, printed 2021 Inkjet print, pigment- based 44 1/4 × 31 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, purchase funds provided by Lisa Munster Tananbaum and Steven Tananbaum 2021.5.1 [PG. 99]
Beauvais Lyons (American, born 1958) The United States Congress of Trump Impersonators, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and photolithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.14
Vardi Kahana (Israeli, born 1959) The Art of Social Distancing #22, The Israeli Art Collection at the TLV Museum 2020, printed 2021 Inkjet print, pigment- based 38 3/4 × 44 1/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, purchase funds provided by Lisa Munster Tananbaum and Steven Tananbaum 2021.5.2
Samantha Mendoza (American, born 1991) Venom of Corruption, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2019 Lithograph on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.15
Deborah Kass (American, born 1952) Chairman Ma #21 (Gertrude) 1993 Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas 46 1/4 × 41 3/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Alice and Marvin Kosmin 2020.5 [PG. 100]
Emmett Merrill (American, born 1993) Red Death, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Color lithograph on BFK tan paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.16
Brian Kelly (American, born 1969) The Nightmare of 45 and His Confederacy of the KKK, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.11
Tatsuo Miyajima (Japanese, born 1957) Model (16) No. 30 1994 Green light emitting diode, IC, electric wire, aluminum panel, and aluminum joint 12 3/8 × 12 3/8 × 6 3/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray Collection 2021.9.2 Kimiko Miyoshi (Japanese, born 1964) unravel it, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and silkscreen on Arnhem 1618 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.17
Mario Kiran (Indian, born 1974) The Anxious Journey, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.12 Andrew Kosten (American, born 1979) Ghouls, Squids and Other Invertebrates, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.13
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Yasumasa Morimura (Japanese, born 1951) An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Gift 2) 2001 Chromogenic print 47 1/4 × 37 3/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the Kruger Family 2020.9.2 Erika Navarrete (American, born 1979) Ignorance is Bliss, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020
Stone lithograph on paper15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists, 2021.3.18 Peter Nickel (American, born 1951) Iapetus (Moon of Saturn), from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Two-color lithograph on Arches white paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.19 Meghan O'Connor (American, born 1981) Sticky Situation, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and screenprint on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.20 Chris Pappan (Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux, born 1971) Definition 1 2018 Graphite, map collage, and acrylic on 1925 Evanston municipal ledger 23 x 18 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by the Andra S. and Irwin Press Collections Fund, 2021.10.1 Chris Pappan (Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux, born 1971) Of White Bread and Miracles (Gett’n Down) 2020 Graphite, ink, map collage, and gold leaf on embossed 1924 Evanston municipal ledger 18 x 11 1/2 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by the Andra S. and Irwin Press Collections Fund 2021.10.2 [OPPOSITE LEFT] Chris Pappan (Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux, born 1971) Of White Bread and Miracles (Jiggy) 2020 Graphite, ink, map collage, and gold leaf on embossed 1924 Evanston municipal ledger 18 x 12 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by the Andra S. and Irwin Press Collections Fund 2021.10.3 [OPPOSITE RIGHT]
"Chris Pappan describes himself as a “Native American Lowbrow” artist whose work addresses themes such as colonialism, cultural appropriate, and the interpretation of history. His drawing and collage series Of White Bread and Miracles and Definition are based on the tradition of American Indian ledger drawings of the mid to late 19th century. Both series are executed on Evanston municipal ledgers from the 1920s and seek to recontextualize modern issues of Indigenous identity and culture through the tradition of ledger drawings. Of White Bread and Miracles series speaks to the misappropriation of sacred Native American practices by the Boy Scouts. According to the artist. the figures from this series originate from the Boy Scouts manual “Here Is Your Hobby… Indian Dancing and Costumes,” where the figures are meant to instruct the reader how to dance.“ —Corinne Granof, Academic Curator
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"Two prints by multimedia conceptual artist Walid Raad from his Appendix 137 series reference the history of twentieth-century war and colonialism, global modernism, and the slippery reliability of the archive" – Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs
Richard Peterson (American, born 1952) Make America Great Again, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Four-color lithograph 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.21 Pat Phillips (born 1987, Lakenheath, England, active in Louisiana) Untitled "I got in 1 little graffiti arrest & my mom got scared...but my dad lost it when me & the homey didn't take community service seriously" 2019 Acrylic, pencil, airbrush, and aerosol paint on paper 22 1/4 × 30 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, gift of Sari and James A. Klein 2020.7
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Andy Polk (American, born 1950) Virus, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.22 Kathryn Polk (American, born 1952) Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2019 Stone and plate lithograph on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.23
Walid Raad (Lebanese and American, born 1967) Appendix 137_048 2018 Archival inkjet print mounted on Sintra 34 5/8 × 29 1/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Norton S. Walbridge Fund purchase 2021.1.1 Walid Raad (Lebanese and American, born 1967) Appendix 137_120 2018 Archival inkjet print mounted on Sintra 34 5/8 × 29 1/4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Norton S. Walbridge Fund purchase Jessica Robles (American, born 1983) Idiot, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and screenprint on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.24
Judith Roth (American, 1935–2019) Untitled 1990 Oil crayon on paper (possible charcoal) 24 × 18 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of The Judith Roth Revocable Trust and Kohler Foundation, Inc. 2020.6 Mark Ruwedel (American, born 1954) Chocolate Mountains, Ancient Footpath toward Indian Pass 1996, printed 2000 Gelatin silver print mounted on matboard 14 15/16 × 18 15/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Gary B. Sokol, San Francisco 2020.4.1
Mark Ruwedel (American, born 1954) The Bonneville Flood, Snake River Canyon (Evel Knievel’s Ramp, to Jump the Canyon on a Motorcycle) 1999, printed 2000 Gelatin silver print mounted on matboard 14 15/16 × 18 15/16 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Gary B. Sokol, San Francisco 2020.4.2 Mark Ruwedel (American, born 1954) Lower Colorado Desert: The Horse Intaglio (A Suggestion of the Encounter) 2000, printed 2000 Gelatin silver print mounted on matboard 14 7/8 × 18 7/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Gary B. Sokol, San Francisco 2020.4.3
"Mark Ruwedel's photographs put the past and present in conversation in ways that make the viewer take a closer look at the landscape he presents. Close inspection of each image shows human presence in different ways. Scholar Murray Whyte notes that Ruwedel's "landscapes contemplate not just a world we’ve altered, but one that will carry on without us. ‘Layering’ time in a single image, recalling past and present moments in one frame in this way is typical of Ruwedel’s work: in his photographs, history and modernity coexist in the same image." -Madeline Hultquist, Undergraduate Curatorial Research Assistant
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Brandon Sanderson (American, born 1977) Beast from the West, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Lithograph and relief print on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.25 Jeff Sippel (American, born 1953) Marco was Right, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Waterless lithograph on paper 20 × 15 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.27 Mark Sisson (American, born 1957) Portrait of Gianna Martucci-Fink : Fakebook News, from the portfolio Trumped 2.0 2020 Seven-color lithograph on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.28 Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954) Untitled (Self Portrait) 1996 Gelatin silver print 14 x 11 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose and Peter Erickson in honor of Christine Olson Robb, ’66, chair, The Block Board of Advisors and First Woman Chair of Northwestern’s Board of Regents 2020.11 Leonard Suryajaya (Chinese-Indonesian, born 1988) Quarantine Blues, from the series Quarantine Blues 2020 Inkjet print 50 × 40 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by Craig Ponzio and Julie and Lawrence Bernstein Family Art Acquisition Fund 2021.6
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Unidentified artist, circle of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (European, possibly Flemish or Dutch, 1600–1675) Untitled [head of a bearded man] Early/mid 17th century Red and black chalk with graphite on cream colored laid paper (with laid paper margin adhered to recto) 8 3/4 × 6 1/2 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray Collection 2021.9.3
Various artists Trumped 2.0 portfolio (Portfolio Exchange Project) 2020 Box of 28 lithographs and title page on paper 15 × 20 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of the participating artists 2021.3.1-28
"Connecting the Dots for a Just Transition is a project that seeks to document the overlooked history of the remains of over 500 abandoned uranium mines on the lands of the Navajo Nation (Dinétah). By photographing these sites, I intend to shape a platform for voices of resilience, Indigenous knowledge and restorative systems of remediation while bearing witness to a history of environmental damage and communal loss on the Dinétah." - Will Wilson, artist statement
Will Wilson (Diné/Bilagaana, born 1969) Cameron Chapter Complex 1, Detail, Cameron, Arizona, Navajo Nation, from the series Connecting the Dots for a Just Transition 2020 Inkjet print 18 × 24 1/8 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by the Andra S. and Irwin Press Collections Fund 2021.8.1
Will Wilson (Diné/Bilagaana, born 1969) Shiprock Disposal Cell, Shiprock, New Mexico, Navajo Nation, from the series Connecting the Dots for a Just Transition 2020 Inkjet print 21 × 27 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchase funds provided by the Andra S. and Irwin Press Collections Fund 2021.8.2
Claire Zeisler (American, 1903–1991) Untitled 1988 Hemp and acrylic 16 1/2 x 40 x 4 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray Collection 2021.9.4
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2019-2020 LOANS FROM THE MUSEUM COLLECTION Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago February 29, 2020 - May 10, 2020 Exhibition closed on March 17, 2020 due to COVID-19 Exhibition re-opened on July 24 through Sept 27, 2020 Yves Klein, French, 1928 – 1962 Monochrome und Feuer (Triptych) Color silkscreens and gold leaf on cardstock 18 in x 35 3/4 in gift of Bill and Sheila Lambert, 2014.7.3 Sam Gilliam, American, born 1933 One, 1970 Acrylic on unstretched canvas 92 × 67 in. (233.7 × 170.2 cm) gift of the Collection of Walter A. Netsch and Dawn Clark Netsch, 2016.5 Kwame Brathwaite, American, born 1938 Untitled (Nomsa Brath with earrings designed by Carolee Prince), 1964, printed 2017 Inkjet print 30 × 30 in. (76.2 × 76.2 cm) gift of the Allen-Niesen Family: Kim, Keith, Kelsey, and Kyle, 2019.13.1
Joan Truckenbrod: Digital Fibers – 1975 to Present Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR August 6, 2021 through September 16, 2021 Joan Truckenbrod (American, born 1945) Electronic Patchwork, 1978 Color photocopy of computer monitor display transferred to polyester sheet 80 x 55 inches Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Joan Truckenbrod, 2008.15.1
Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL April 8, 2021 through June 13, 2021 Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch, 1558 – 1617 Mars and Venus, 1588 Engraving on paper plate: 17-1/4 x 13-1/16 in; sheet: 18-3/4 in x 14-1/8 in Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, purchased in memory of Gilbert "Pape" Prevostean, 1994.85
Nigerian-born British designer DURO OLOWU is internationally recognized for his womenswear label launched in 2004. Characterized by unique fabrics, evocative patterns, and impeccable construction, the London-based designer’s garments are informed by his international background and curator’s eye. Olowu’s multinational and multicultural viewpoint has translated into wildly popular platforms and projects from his dynamic Instagram account to his revelatory curatorial projects in London and New York. Now Olowu turns his cosmopolitan eye to Chicago. Drawing from the city’s public and private art collections including works in the MCA’s collection, Olowu curates a show that reimagines relationships between artists and objects across time, media, and geography. Moving away from traditional exhibition formats, Olowu combines photographs, paintings, sculptures, and films in dense and textural scenes that incorporate his own work. The exhibition is guest-curated by Duro Olowu and organized for the MCA by Naomi Beckwith, Manilow Senior Curator, with Jack Schneider, Curatorial Assistant.
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COLLECTION ACQUISITIONS AND LOANS 108
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Class visit to the Eloise Martin Study Center
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Installation work on the exhibition Behold, Be Held on the outside of The Block building.
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THE BLOCK IN 2020-21:
MUSEUM OPERATIONS
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BLOCK STAFF Ellen Philips Katz Director LISA GRAZIOSE CORRIN Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs KATHLEEN BICKFORD BERZOCK Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow RIKKI BYRD Senior Manager of Marketing & Communications LINDSAY BOSCH Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibition Management, Senior Registrar KRISTINA BOTTOMLEY Development Program Assistant THERESA BUSCH-REED Manager of Visitors Services AARON CHATMAN Steven & Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern And Contemporary Art JANET DEES Art History Graduate Fellow BETHANY HILL Academic Curator CORINNE GRANOF Associate Film Programmer MALIA HAINES-STEWART Director of Development ELISA QUINLAN Lead Preparator MARK LEONHART Head Projectionist REBECCA LYON 113 THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Arts MICHAEL METZGER Susan & Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement ERIN NORTHINGTON Visitors Services Officer ROCIO OLASIMBO Media & Communications Coordinator EMMANUEL RAMOS-BARAJAS Assistant to the Director JENNA ROBERTSON Associate Curator of Collections ESSI RÖNKKÖ Engagement Coordinator & Educator AMÉRICA SALOMÓN Collections and Exhibitions Coordinator JOE SCOTT Business Administrator RITA SHORTS Associate Director of Collections & Exhibitions Management DAN SILVERSTEIN Senior Business Administrator JEFF SMITH Visitors Services Office JAMES STAUBER Curatorial Research Associate ALISA SWINDELL Curatorial Associate MELANIE GARCIA SYMPSON Visitors Services Associate VINCENT TAYLOR Senior Advancement Manager KATE HADLEY TOFTNESS
Staff get together summer 2021 after quarantine
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NEW BOARD LEADERSHIP
Christine O. Robb
At the conclusion on the 2020-21 year The Block Museum of Art Board of Advisors celebrated the extraordinary service and leadership of Christine O. Robb (WCAS ’66) (SP WCAS ’66) (Parent ’93) and welcomed new co-chairs Cheryl Johnson-Odim (WCAS MA ’75, WCAS PhD ’78) and Stuart H. Bohart (WCAS ’89, Parent ’25). Robb has served as the chair of The Block Board of Advisors since 2006 and has been integral to the museum’s evolution and growth, including her contributions to the 2012 appointment of Lisa Graziose Corrin as The Block’s Ellen Philips Katz Director. Robb’s leadership has also been central to the museum’s surpassing its $26 million fundraising goal as part of We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern, including the establishment of a collective Board of Advisors endowed fund. “Chris Robb has been an extraordinary friend and ally in championing the crucial role of the art museum in a multi-disciplinary Northwestern education. She has been a trusted sounding board since I arrived at the University, passionately advocating for our work and its impact on faculty and students within the many communities she serves,” said Lisa Corrin. The Block Board of Advisors consists of 35 leaders from the worlds of the arts, academia, and business who support and advise the museum’s director. Robb will remain an active member of The Block’s Board of Advisors, while supporting the leadership transition to new co-chairs to strengthen the museum’s ongoing impact on campus, locally, and nationally. “We are honored to welcome two extraordinary leaders to helm our Board of Advisors. Both Cheryl and Stu bring rich experience guiding cultural institutions at the national and international level, and deep insight regarding the role an art museum can play in disseminating knowledge and impacting the student experience. We are grateful that they will be bringing this experience to bear on ensuring that Northwestern’s art museum achieves its full potential in its ability to serve campus and community,” Corrin said.
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Stu Bohart
Cheryl Johnson-Odom
Cheryl Johnson-Odim holds a doctorate in history from Northwestern University. Her former posts have included provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Dominican University (Illinois), dean of the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Columbia College Chicago, chair of the History Department at Loyola University Chicago, and assistant director of the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University. She has taught at Northwestern University, Loyola University Chicago, and Columbia College Chicago, among others. Her community service is extensive, including serving as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Higher Learning Commission, vice chair of the Illinois Humanities Council, chair of the Joan Kelly Prize Committee of the American Historical Association, member of the founding board of associate editors of the Journal of Women’s History, member of the board of the African Studies Association, and co-convenor of its Women’s Caucus. She was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement with Friends of the Student Nonviolent (later National) Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in New York, as well as other organizations during that period. Stu Bohart is a partner at FORT Investment Management, a hedge fund employing systematic quantitative strategies for institutional investors. He has been in the asset management and securities industry for 30+ years and spent most of his career at Morgan Stanley, where he was a division head and a member of the Management Committee. He has worked and lived in the PRC, Japan, and the UK. Stu is active in charities related to the arts and education; he is chairman emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, a past board member of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum, former vice-chair of NYC Outward Bound Schools, and a past trustee of Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Stu and his wife, Elizabeth, have three daughters and live in Aspen, Colorado.
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BOARD OF
ADVISORS Winnetka, IL, Appointed 2011, Chair, Board of Advisors, Christine O. Robb President and CEO, Artists’ Concepts, Inc. (WCAS’66) (SP WCAS’66) Chicago, IL, Appointed 2015, Art Collector (SP KSM’97) Anu Aggarwal New York, NY, Appointed 2017, Vice Chancellor, Marketing and Mary Baglivo Communications, Rutgers University (MDL’81) New York, NY, Appointed 2018, Director of Exhibitions, Clare Bell Guggenheim Museum (Parent ’22) Los Angeles, CA, Appointed 2015, President/Founder, Maria Bell Vitameatavegamin (WCAS’85) Chicago, IL, Appointed 2019, Medical Director, Northstar Daniel S. Berger Healthcare, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, UIC Pacific Palisades, CA, Appointed 2016, Artist (Parent ’17, '23) Christine Bernstein New York, NY Appointed 2019, Art Collector and principal and Julie Bernstein founder of the interior and floral design firm Cambridge Bell Flowers New York, NY, Appointed 2016, Former Financial Advisor, Stuart H. Bohart Fortress Investment Group (WCAS ’89) Brooklyn, NY, Appointed 2016, Curator and Advisor, PVC Fine Priscilla Vail Caldwel Arts, LLC. (WCAS’85) Glencoe, IL, Appointed 2014, Former Public Defender; Stacey Cantor Community Volunteer (WCAS’90) (Parent ‘20) Chicago, IL, Appointed 2013, Gallerist, Corbett vs. Dempsey John Corbett Gallery, and professor (Comm PhD ’94) Evanston, IL, Ex-officio, The Ellen Philips Katz Director of The Lisa G. Corrin Block Museum Evanston, IL, Appointed 2013, Grant Writer (WCAS’92) (SP Nicole Druckman WCAS’93) Darien, CT, Appointed 2013, Former Art Dealer; Community Kristin Peterson Edwards Volunteer (WCAS’92) New Haven, CT, Retired, Yale University Art Gallery (TGS PhD Kate Ezra ’83) Chicago, IL, Appointed 2013, Founder/President, 555 James Geier International Chicago, IL, Appointed 2012, Retired Ophthalmologist (FSM’74 Lynn Hauser ’76 ’80) (SP FSM’75 ’79 ’80)
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Steven P. Henry New York, NY, Appointed 2018, Senior Director at Paula Cooper Gallery (WCAS’85) Rashid Johnson New York, NY, Appointed 2019, Artist Cheryl Johnson-Odim Evanston, IL, Appointed 2020, Provost Emerita, Dominican University (WCAS MA ’75,WCAS PhD’78) Ellen Philips Katz New York, NY, Appointed 2005,Trustee, Northwestern University (WCAS’70) Zeynep Keyman Zürich and Istanbul, Appointed 2013, Art Collector, (Parent ’07, ’12) James A. Klein Riverwoods, IL, Appointed 2010, President, Acrobat Marketing Company (MDL ’68; ’69) Dianne Loeb Seattle, WA, Appointed 2014, NU Regent; Community Volunteer (KSM’80) (SP KSM’81) Angela Lustig Chicago, IL, Appointed 2014, Artist; Former VP/Group Creative Director, Abelson Taylor (SP MDL’67 ’68) R. Hugh Magill Winnetka, IL, Appointed 2006, Senior Vice President, Northern Trust Company (SP Music ’86) Kim Allen-Niesen Los Angeles, CA, Appointed 2017, Art Collector (Parent ’16, ’19) Craig Ponzio Evergreen, CO, Appointed 2019, Retired CEO, Art Collector, (Parent '22) Irwin Press Chicago, IL, Appointed 2012, Retired Professor, Notre Dame University; antd co-founder, Press Ganey Associates (WCAS ’59) Richard M. Rieser, Jr. Northbrook, IL, Appointed 2013, Founder and former CEO, First Oak Brook Bancshares (SP SESP ’70) Sandra L. Riggs Lake Forest, IL, Appointed 2012, Board Member, The Alumnae of Northwestern University (Comm’65) Selig D. Sacks New York, NY, Appointed 2007, Managing Director and General Counsel, Ruton Capital (WCAS’69) (Parent ’17) Jean E. Shedd Evanston, IL, Retired NU Associate Provost for Budget, Facilities, and Analysis (KSM’97) Diane Solomon New York, NY, Appointed 2012, Art Collector (Parent ’10, ’15) Lisa Tananbaum New York, NY, Appointed 2015, Art Collector (WCAS’86) Martha Tedeschi Cambridge, MA, Appointed 2017, Director of the Harvard Art Museums (WCAS PhD’94) Ken Thompson Lincolnshire, IL, Appointed 2015, Managing Director, Level X Consulting (WCAS ’91) Susan Wilson Evanston, IL/Santa Barbara, CA, Appointed 2015, Community Volunteer (MDL’70) (SP WCAS’70 KSM’74)
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COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, ACCESS, AND INCLUSION (DEAI) Throughout 2020-21 The Block staff discussed its responsibility and commitment to Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion - including training and dialogue sessions led by Professor and DEAI consultant Alvin B. Tillery. The staff collectively authored a formalized statement of commitment in January 2021. At The Block Museum of Art, we are inspired by art’s capacity to express the range of our shared humanity. We aspire to be an institution in which the values of diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEAI) are fully present in the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our work. Further, we acknowledge that centering diverse identities and perspectives within the museum is essential to our institutional excellence and sustainability. We seek to build an organizational culture in which the essential values of diversity and free expression coexist, cultivating a workplace that welcomes staff participation from within the fullness of personal identity and lived experience and making the museum a place where such participation is welcome and meaningful. This internal work will set the context, in turn, for a museum where each individual visitor is equally welcomed and supported. We seek to center collaborative, decolonizing processes when developing programs that uphold inclusivity, reciprocity, and research, all shaped by respect for our partners and the stories we represent. Through commitments in the ten areas of 1) staff, 2) leadership, 3) advisors 4), campus community, 5) collecting, 6) programming, 7) partnering and hosting, 8) eliminating barriers, 9) accessibility, and 10) accountability and transparency, we seek to embody the ideals to which we aspire. We recognize that this work will evolve, that at times we will make missteps, and that we must commit to sustained, intentional efforts by the museum’s leadership, staff, and advisors. We will accept accountability when we fail, and we will seek guidance from others to uncover and learn from our shortcomings.
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ANNUAL UPDATE ON ONGOING DEAI WORK In spring 2021, the Block formed a Staff DEAI Working Group with representatives
from across departments to recommend deliverable actions related to our organization goals. Members conducted meetings with each museum department, held workshops, and hosted individual staff interviews to build an assessment of museum work culture and activities in relation to the Block’s DEAI commitments and stated values. The Working Group shared a significant summary of these conversations outlining priorities and recommendations with museum leadership in fall 2021. In their initial report, the DEAI working group has identified three areas for current focus: communication, accessibility, and investment in staff. In addition to individual goals and departmental commitments related to DEAI, museum deliverables underway include: •
Standardized visitor services / customer service training for all staff
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All-staff workshops to support DEAI commitments
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Dedicated time for all Block staff to integrate regular DEAI reflection, learning, and action in their work
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Creating a “template” to standardize and communicate accessibility practices, offerings, and resources
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Formal, cross-departmental, and non-hierarchical communication forum(s) for aligning our respective DEAI work
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Research to diversify vendors
In December 2020, the Block joined Enrich Chicago, a group whose organizational mission is to “irrevocably change the racist systems in the arts so that African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) arts, ALAANA arts organizations, and ALAANA people thrive.” Three Block staff representatives regularly attend workshops, share institutional DEAI goals, and exchange ideas with colleagues in regional cultural non-profits. Together, the Enrich cohort works towards a common goal of broad institutional change with regard to racial equity. The Block Board of Advisors has developed its own DEAI deliverables, raised resources to support the Block’s DEAI commitments, and formed a DEAI Study Group in summer 2021.
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C O LL E CT I O N S & E X H I B I T I O N S iven the dual roles and responsibilities that our department helps to oversee, it is always exciting when we are given the opportunity to contribute to creating exhibitions from our Collection.
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Add to that the chance of celebrating our institution’s 40 Anniversary, and you start to get a sense of the exciting work that our team has helped undertake during the last year. All while remaining both flexible and vigilant considering the continued threat from COVID-19. These exhibitions not only celebrated our Collection’s history, they also announced many new paths forward in our collecting strategy. This was evidenced in the many gifts to the Collection that we received this past year, and indeed the past several years leading up to our 40th Celebrations. This, in turn, created an active acquisition period where our team helped accession these many gifts and purchases, through shipping arrangements; receiving, unpacking and inspecting all new works; as well as entering them into our collection management software program, which in turn, helped make them accessible to the public through our recently launched online platform, eMuseum.
space, into a well-spaced study room. This allowed for both physical distancing and for the study of art objects from our Collection for faculty, staff and students. Many of these visits were related to the research that was needed to prepare for the 40th Anniversary exhibits and were part of our strategy of how we could continue to mount our upcoming exhibitions.
Finally, in light of all of our department’s contributions to the museum’s ongoing priorities, including teaching and learning, and expanding accessibility, I want to mention the extraordinary dedication of not only our Collection and Exhibitions fulltime team, but that of our contracted preparator crew, as well. Together, they represent an immensely talented team that helped us face every challenge and obstacle over the past year’s continued pandemic and have been unwavering in their commitment to helping the museum achieve our goals. All done with the greatest sense of professionalism and collegiality that often went above and beyond what Not only were objects made available one might expect given the pressures and for study online in a very timely fashion, stresses that were surely felt by all. allowing people to access and research our Collection from anywhere in the world As we celebrate our past, it is gratifying during the time of a global pandemic, but to know how well positioned we are to they were also made available for study continue our endeavors and tackle any in-person by our Northwestern University challenges that may lay ahead based on community. Keeping the health and safety how well we have responded to those of of all at the forefront of our minds, our team this past year. made very creative use of our shuttered gallery space that we were forced to close – Dan Silverstein during the COVID-related shutdown. They Associate Director of Collections & did this by temporarily turning our Main Exhibitions Gallery, the museum’s largest exhibition 121 THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
The main gallery set up for sicially distanced learning.
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2020-21 N O RT H W E ST E R N P R O G R A M M I N G PA RT N E R S • • • • • • •
Center for Health Equity Transformation Feinberg School of Medicine McCormick School of Engineering New Student and Family Programs Northwestern Alumni Association Office of Residential Academic Initiatives Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators (SHAPE),
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• • • • • • •
Center for Awareness, Response and Education Office of Student Affairs Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts The Black Arts Consortium The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities The Graduate School Northwestern Hillel
ENGAGEMENT DEPARTMENT REPORT
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espite the many new challenges and trauma brought by the COVID-19 global pandemic, 2020-2021 was a year of growth for the Engagement Department.
We spent our year working with campus and community partners almost entirely remotely – removed from the physical spaces and objects that have traditionally characterized our work. We needed to think creatively and expansively about our values, our priorities, and our work, and how the Block Museum can extend beyond our physical walls. We refocused on our work with Northwestern students. In Fall 2020, we piloted a reimaging of our Student Docent program. Building on the group’s existing strengths in museum education and facilitation, our students expanded their role to include serving as peer ambassadors on campus, student advisors for all levels of museum staff, and as shapers of the museum’s collection itself by working with our Curatorial colleagues to acquire Leonard Suryajaya’s Quarantine Blues (2020). In addition to our work with our own Block Museum student community, we grew and strengthened relationships with campus offices, staff, and student organizations, including nearly a dozen new collaborations and partnerships across disciplines. Our work with Evanston deepened as well. In conjunction with our upcoming exhibition A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Anti-Black Violence, we convened a group of Evanston community advisors. Together, we considered what it means to present this exhibition at Northwestern and in Evanston, how best to extend care and support for visitors, and to generate ideas for community-driven public programs. We expanded our partnership with Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) with a year of programming focused on object-based discussion and creative activities linking objects in our collection with themes of policing, body image, beauty ideals, equity, racial justice, and the school to prison pipeline. This work manifested in Behold, Be Held, the Block’s first outdoor exhibition, curated by Graduate Student Fellow Rikki Byrd, which
explored ideas of self-care, agency, and community. Our high school student collaborators in Y.O.U.’s Leadership Project worked with Byrd to select works for installation in the windows of their building in Evanston, and on the windows of the Block Museum. We found that the shift to online public programming allowed us to reach new partners and new audiences. Online public programming brought nearly 1,000 guests from near and far to the Block, and opened up unexpected opportunities for dialogue. Programming highlights included a series of collection-based talks to explore issues in Just Mercy, Northwestern’s One Book selection for 2020-2021, student-led dialogues linking objects together around a common and sometimes unexpected theme, and a conversation with national museum directors on institutional leadership today, and what is needed next. In addition to these public events, we offered private programs for new partners, including the Center for Aphasia at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Arts of Life, and the student organization, Sexual Health and Assault Prevention Education (S.H.A.P.E.). 2020-2021 saw growth within the Engagement Department as well – we were delighted to welcome América Salomón, former Engagement Coordinator, into a new role as our first Manager of Public Programs and have already benefited from her leadership and vision in this work. We are excited to carry forward the lessons we learned as we prepare to reopen our doors, and as we think together next year about how art, artists, and museums explore ideas of history and help us to envision new futures.
– Erin Northington
Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement
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R E F L E CT I O N S O N T H E B LO C K M U S E U M ST U D E N T DOCENT PROGRAM The Block Docent program has taken this strange year as an opportunity to reframe and recenter our work at the museum. This has involved adapting our work to a virtual format through online Art Talks and trying our hand at new aspects of museum work such as writing labels and acquiring a piece for the Block’s collection. Each of these assignments gave the Docents autonomy to craft something that is truly theirs whether that is a one hundred-fifty word label or a thirty-minute tour of two works from the collection. The acquisition took this to another level as the Docents collaborated to think about what kind of work would be important to add to the collection. The piece they chose will remain in the collection as a lasting testament to the impact this year’s Docents had on the Block community. Outside of these tangible accomplishments, another core element of the Docent program has been an increased focus on community building. The Docent team is made up of a wide variety of students from different majors and communities on campus. Through activities, conversations, and meaningful shared space, this group became a unit joined through shared passions and mutual respect. This community building was further enhanced in conversations about social justice and identity with Social Justice Education and biweekly meetings with different members of the Block team. These meetings made space for a critical and thoughtful examination of what it means to work in an academic art museum. As we bid farewell to the Docents who are graduating and turn our attention to next year’s return to in-person programming, this year will be remembered as an important next step in the growth and development of the Block Docent program as the Docents became an even more essential part of the Block’s work.
– Erin Claeys '21
Docent Coordinator
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STUDENT DOCENTS 2020-2021 Ayinoluwa Abegunde Major in Chemical Engineering (2022) Fiona Asokacitta Major in History and Art History, minor in Anthropology (2021) Erin Claeys, Docent Coordinator Major in Legal Studies and Theatre in the Playwriting Module (2021) Claire Corridon Major in American Studies and Political Science (2021) Karan Gowda Major in Biological Sciences (2022) Chayda Harding Major in History (2022) Brianna Heath Major in Art History, Minor in African American Studies (2021) Hyohee Kim Major in Learning Sciences and Asian American Studies (2022)
Mina Malaz Major in Art History and Psychology (2021) Lennart Nielsen Major in Theatre and International Studies, minor in Creative Writing (2021) Giboom Joyce Park Major in Political Science, History, and International Studies (2022) Margeaux Rocco Major Undecided and minor in Art Theory and Practice (2023) Joely Simon Major in Journalism, minor in Art History, Integrated Marketing Communications Certificate (2021) Rory Kahiya Tsapayi Major in Art History and Journalism (2021)
MEET THE 20-21 COHORT
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Socially-distanced class visit
C L A S S C O LL E CT I O N V I S I TS SOCIOLOGY 101 Wendy Griswold, Sociology, “First-Year Seminar: Animals & Society,”10 students
SOCIOLOGY 376 Renee Shelby, “Sexuality, Technoscience, and Law,” ~12 students
ART HISTORY 250 GERMAN 201 Adrian Randolph, Art History, “Introduction to European Art, 1400–1800,” 45 students Denise Meuser, “Focus Reading – Art in the Modern Age,” ~8 students CLASSICS 101 ART HISTORY 460 Ryan Platte, Classics, “First-Year Seminar, Ancient Greece and Rome in Modern Film Soyini Madison and Omi Jones, “Black Art in Anti-Black Worlds” ~12 students Culture," 15 students ART HISTORY 390 FRENCH 333 Cynthia Nazarian, “Topics in Renaissance Literature, Montaigne and Modernity,” 6 students
Hamed Yousefi, “Modern Art and Spiritual Thought,” ~12 students
SOCIOLOGY 206
Printmaking: R & R (Relief, Relief; Repeat), Brendan Fernandes; Shabtai Pinchevsky, TA ~8 students
Joanna Grisinger, Legal Studies / Sociology, “Law and Society,” 7 sections, ~200 students
ART, THEORY AND PRACTICE 390
SOCIOLOGY 392
Kat Albrecht, “Sociology of Fear,” ~15 Christopher Davis, French, “Medieval Travel students Narratives,” ~12 students FRENCH 322
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SPECIAL ONLINE PROGRAMS Sept-Oct 2020 Three online orientation programs and drop-in virtual office hours for Northwestern Students. Various dates; attendance ~15 students Nov 2 and Dec 7, 2020 Two-part online private program and art making with Y.O.U.’s Leadership Project on policing, body image, and identity. 15 students each session. K-12 program (ETHS high school). Dec 3 Online Just Mercy program for the Shirley Ryan Ability lab. 45 visitors. Feb 22, March 8, March 22, May 10 Three online sessions with Y.O.U.’s Leadership Project for the selection and interpretation of Block collection objects for Behold, Be Held. 15 students each session. In-person socially distanced wrap-up/ celebration on May 10. K-12 program (ETHS high school). March 23 and April 27 Two online sessions for Arts of Life. 25 visitors each session. May 24 Student docent-led online program for NU student leaders of SHAPE (Sexual Health and Assault Prevention Educators). 15 NU students.
Corinne Granof, Academic Curator leads online class session
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C U R ATO R I A L R E P O RT
he 2020/21 Academic Year required all of us at The Block Museum to embrace the moment.
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In the curatorial department this meant pivoting from our long-planned onsite activities—exhibitions, gallery tours, film programs, and student-focused initiatives— to new virtual and hybrid formats that pushed us to think differently about engaging with artworks and communities. This transition likewise led us to pose new questions about our work: what does a virtual curatorial program look like? What does it mean to experience art through electronic tools? How can we connect with students, faculty, and wider audiences virtually? And, most pressingly, what is needed in this moment and what do we have to give? Among our earliest initiatives was offering virtual class visits focused on works in The Block’s collection to support Northwestern faculty and students. We were surprised to discover unexpected opportunities for close looking in virtual space that took us deeper into the details of artworks than is possible with in person looking. Building on these experiences we also offered 30-minute lunchtime curatorial talks on works in The Block’s collection and shared “Curator Picks” through the museum’s social media inspired by what was on our minds, from caring for our neighbors, to political expression, to the experience of solitude. Block graduate fellows Rikki Byrd and Bethany Hill extended our investigation into how virtual tools can accentuate looking at artworks with their creation of a virtual learning tool, “Margaret Burroughs ‘Mother and Child’: A
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Closer Look”. This resource will be a model for future deep dives into select artworks through student-led research. In the Spring, graduate fellow Rikki Byrd also innovated a new exhibition format for The Block with Behold, Be Held, using the museum’s windows, as well as those of our neighbor, The Ethel M. Barber Theater, and our community partner, Evanston’s Youth Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), to display large-scale reproductions of artwork from The Block’s collection, each reflecting on how art holds us in times of crisis. Our widest reach happened through our online cinema programs, including Liberating Histories: Arab Feminisms and Mediated Pasts, featuring five screenings that drew in hundreds of viewers from around the world. The experience of connecting with worldwide audiences through new online platforms undoubtedly will continue to impact our work going forward. None-the-less, we felt deeply the import of connecting in physical space with a limited campus audience during the pandemic through our onsite exhibition For One and All: Prints from The Block’s Collection, a project that also had an expanded online presence. Reflecting on a challenging year, deep gratitude remains for the presence of art in our lives and for the abiding connections with community near and far that it allows us to forge.
– Kathleen Bickford Berzock
Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs
Main Gellery transfomed to teaching space
Installation view of For One and All in Alsdorf Gallery
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CA R AVA N S O F G O L D R E P O RT hile the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa closed at The Block at the conclusion of FY2018-2019, the reverberations of the project continue to be a significant part of the museum's work.
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AWARD
CARAVANS OF GOLD’ RECOGNIZED FOR CURATORIAL, PUBLICATIONS EXCELLENCE BY ARTS COUNCIL OF THE AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION JULY 2021
The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), has announced the Block Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, as a recipient of two of its highest honors . The exhibition was awarded a 2021 Award for Curatorial Excellence, which recognizes important curatorial contributions to the dissemination and understanding of African and African Diaspora Arts, as well as a 2021 Arnold Rubin Outstanding Book Award which is given for excellence in published scholarship on the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. This extraordinary exhibition pulled together a team of professionals from Morocco, to Mali, Nigeria, and Chicago, to draw attention to the central role played by trans Saharan trade routes, and the global networks that shaped the medieval era. Together, experts brought new insights to some of the most renowned treasures of African art history while also revealing the profound insights to be found in shards, fragments and the archeological imagination." -ACASA Awards Committee 131 THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
PARTNERSHIP
AFRICAN HERITAGE IN DIALOGUE APRIL 2021
Northwestern University’s Program of African Studies and Block Museum of Art are proud to partner on "African Heritage in Dialogue," an ongoing platform intended to promote, celebrate, and enable exchange with cultural heritage professionals working on the African continent. In the inaugural 2021 African Heritage in Dialogue series: Looking Ahead with Caravans of Gold Partners, we follow up with institutional leaders and archaeologists in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria who have been fundamental to developing and presenting The Block’s exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time. This series explores essential questions: How are cultural institutions and researchers managing during the pandemic? What other factors have impacted their work over the past year? How do archaeologists and museums in each country work together in beneficial ways? And, where lies the future of archaeology, museum practice, and cultural heritage in different countries and regions? MALI: Conversation features Dr. Baba Coulibaly (Director, Insitut des sciences humaines, Bamako), Dr. Moulaye Coulibaly (Director, Direction nationale du partimoine culturel, Bamako), Dr. Mohamed Diagayété (Director, Institut des hautes études et de recherches islamiques Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu), and Dr. Daouda Keita (Director, Musée national du Mali, Bamako). The conversation is moderated by Kathleen Bickford Berzock (associate director of curatorial affairs, Block Museum) and Amanda Logan (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Northwestern University). NIGERIA: Abidemi Babatunde Babalola (Smuts Research Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge, and Research Affiliate at the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Heritage Centre of the Cyprus Institute) and Edith O. Ekunke (immediate past Director of Museums, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria). The conversation is moderated by Kathleen Bickford Berzock (associate director of curatorial affairs, Block Museum) and Amanda Logan (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Northwestern University). MOROCCO: Rochdi Bernoussi (director, Musée Bank al-Maghrib, Rabat), Abdallah Fili (professor of archaeology, Université Chouaib Doukali d 'El-Jadida, Rabat), Youssef Khiara (director of cultural patrimony, Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Rabat). The conversation is moderated by Kathleen Bickford Berzock (associate director of curatorial affairs, Block Museum) and Amanda Logan (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Northwestern University).
WATCH
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Kathleen Bickford Berzock
Installation view of For One and All in Alsdorf Gallery
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CA R AVA N S O F G O L D R E P O RT AWARD
GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE NAMES KATHLEEN BICKFORD BERZOCK TO SCHOLARS PROGRAM SEPTEMBER 2020
The Getty Research Institute (GRI) announced Block Museum Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, Kathleen Bickford Berzock among 43 scholars who were awarded residencies through the annual Scholars Program. The theme for the 2020/2021 scholar year, was “The Fragment.” Issues regarding the fragment have been present since the beginning of art history and archaeology. Many objects of study survive in physically fragmented forms, and any object, artwork, or structure may be conceived of as a fragment of a broader cultural context. As such, fragments catalyze the investigative process of scholarship. In partnership with the GRI, Berzock will continue her work advanced in the exhibition Caravans of Gold.
PARTNERSHIP
PRIMARY SOURCE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2021
“What ‘big idea’ about Africa did curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock want to convey when she decided to plan the exhibition Caravans of Gold?” So reads a discussion/comprehension question that may soon be posed to 6th grade students across Massachusetts. The Block Museum of Art is honored to contribute to a curriculum development project created by the education non-profit Primary Source. Primary Source is currently working with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to design its new model curriculum for 5th, 6th, and 7th grades social studies. Currently, with scholarly guidance from the African Studies Center at Boston University, the organization is writing an in-depth 6th grade unit (six-weeks) on ancient and medieval Africa. Block Museum videos, resources, and Teacher’s Guide created in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time will help inform the developing pedagogy.
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Installation views of Caravans of Gold at the Smithsonian
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CA R AVA N S O F G O L D R E P O RT
WATCH VIRTUAL OPENING
EXHIBITION TOUR
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART VIRTUAL OPENING HELD NOVEMBER 19, 202O PUBLIC OPENING JULY 16, 2021 - FEBRUARY 27, 2022
During the COVID closure of the 2020-21 year the exhibition Caravans of Gold was safely stored at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. The Block's exhibition partners at the Smithsonian celebrated a virtual opening in November of 2020, and opened their doors to visitors in July of 2021. The Block worked with lenders to extend loans allowing for the exhibition to remain on view through February of 2022.
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F I N A N C I A L R E P O RT FY 21 REVENUE $3,739,428 FY21 EXPENSES $ $3,739,428 FY 2021 REVENUE Use of Reserves 8%
Earned Income 0%
Endowment 19% Individual Gifts 13%
Parent Organization Support 51%
Engagement, 1% Collections Management and Aqusitions, 2%
Government Grants 2% Foundation Grants 7%
Communications, 2%
General Operations, 6%
Development and Block Board, 1%
Payroll and Benefits, 61%
Curatorial and Media Arts, 1%
Exhibition…
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Signage invites visitors to engage with the museum digitally
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Block Fellows Bethany Hill and Rikki Byrd
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2020 - 2021 DONOR HONOR ROLL $50,000 and above Marilynn Bruder Alsdorf* Diane Solomon and Craig Solomon Lisa Munster Tananbaum and Steven A. Tananbaum Susan K. Wilson and Stephen R. Wilson
Amy O. Geier and James Geier Lynn E. Hauser and Neil L. Ross Angela Himsel and Selig D. Sacks Sari Klein and James A. Klein Sandra L. Riggs Dorothy J. Speidel Priscilla A. Vail Caldwell
$25,000-$49,999 Lisa Kadin and William Spiegel Ellen Philips Katz Zeynep Yasemin Keyman and Melih Keyman Angela Lustig and Dale Taylor Craig Ponzio Elizabeth G. Stout*
$1,000-$4,999 Nancy A. Abshire Kay Kujala Deaux Fabiola Delgado and Kenneth N. Thompson Janet Sally Dumas Elizabeth Ellrodt and Scott C. Schweighauser Kate Ezra Judith Rachel Freeman Carol Ginsburg and Jerome J. Ginsburg Mary Ann Grumman and David L. Grumman Denise M. Gunter Jean L. Guritz and Gary Robert Guritz Steven P. Henry Adam D. Hirsch Gail Hodges and Tom Hodges Rosalyn M. Laudati and James B. Pick Nancy Tims Magill and R. Hugh Magill Graciela Claudia Meltzer and Neal D. Meltzer Diane Baraban More Carol J. Narup Janis W. Notz and John K. Notz Katherine Laun Olson Jane H. Peterson and Lloyd J. Peterson Sarah M. Pritchard and Neal E. Blair Karen Richards Sachs and David Allan Sachs Jean E. Shedd Martha P. Tedeschi and Michael Lukasiewicz Kay Torshen Arete Swartz Warren
$10,000-$24,999 Mary Baglivo and James Meguerian Elizabeth Ann Epstein and Stuart Henry Bohart Dianne Dardes Loeb and Stephen B. Loeb Andra S. Press and Irwin Press Susan Gecht Rieser and Richard M. Rieser Christine Olson Robb andWilliam John Robb Mimi R. Schapiro and Morton Schapiro $5,000-$9,999 Anu Aggarwal and Arjun Aggarwal Kim Allen-Niesen and Keith Allen-Niesen Lorinda Ash Clare Bell Christine Meleo Bernstein and Armyan Bernstein Katherine Bacon Best and Bob Best Nicole E. Rubens Druckman and James N. Druckman Kristin Peterson Edwards Matthew S. Edwards Barbara N. Fuldner
$500-$999 P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale Mary Lynn Gibbons and James F. Gibbons Robert A. Hastings Susan Wascher-Kumar and Prem Kumar Ilene B. Marquardt and Karl L. Marquardt Debra K. Mellinger and Edward M. Mellinger Jr. Nancy Nelson Staniar Inci D. Ulgur $250-$499 Suzette Bross Bulley and Allan E. Bulley Sally S. Dobroski and Bernard J. Dobroski Bryna Goldman Gamson and Edward P. Gamson Christopher P. Huisinga Margaret Lynn Hughitt Matthew Alan Kluk William R. Levin Joseph S. Martinich Marilyn McCoy Vicki L. Sauter James R. Shaeffer Charles R. Thomas Donald Tritschler Northwestern University Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Black Arts Initiative British Cluster Department of English Gender & Sexuality Studies Program The Graduate School Performance Studies; School of Communication Radio, Television, and Film; School of Communication Undergraduate Research Assistant Program *Deceased
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2020-2021 G R A N TS $100,000 AND ABOVE Terra Foundation for American Art Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts $25,000 – $99,000 National Endowment for the Arts Myers Foundations Illinois Arts Council Agency The Alumnae of Northwestern University $5,000 – $9,000 Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
G I F TS O F A RT Lisa Corrin and Peter B. Erickson Beauvais Lyons Tonika Lewis Johnson Steven P. Henry Deborah Hirshfield Sari Klein and James A. Klein Alice Zoloto Kosmin and Cookie Kosmin JoAnn Kruger and Bernard Kruger Kim Allen-Niesen and Keith Allen-Niesen Diane M. Saltzman and Robert P. Saltzman Gary Sokol Martha P. Tedeschi and Michael Lukasiewicz
Up to $4,999 Furthermore: A program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
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G R A N T R E P O RT he Block’s grants continued a very positive trajectory this year with recognition of the museum’s work in the form of major awards from national funders.
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Especially notable, The Terra Foundation for American Art awarded the largest research and development grant in The Block’s history to support our development of an exhibition project that looks at the art history of the Chicago region from an Indigenous perspective. Co-curators Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Janet Dees have begun a research and development process that takes an Indigenous, reciprocal curatorial approach. In addition to supporting research travel and related scholarly convenings, the Terra grant supports a Guest Co-curator and a Terra Curatorial Research Fellow as additional members of the curatorial team. The project will be a critical contribution to Terra’s city-wide Art Design Chicago 2024 initiative and a landmark exhibition for understanding the art and visual culture of our region. Through projects like Caravans of Gold, The Block has become known for producing original scholarship through a process that exemplifies long-term, collaborative, and reciprocal relationships. This project brings this intensive process even closer to home, where we hope it will resonate with numerous organizations throughout Chicago’s art communities and beyond. Grant fundraising for A Site of Struggle concluded with another milestone year, including a top grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and second round of support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Particularly noted by the NEA’s reviewers was The Block’s attentiveness to best practices and community input, the project’s high level of scholarship, and our commitment to broad audiences, including outside of Chicago. The Montgomery Museum of Fine Art will be an important partner venue within the context of this
federal grant. For the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, this most recent grant follows on a 2019 Curatorial Research Fellowship, which provided the foundation for this project’s groundbreaking research led by Janet Dees. This second award will enable the implementation of the exhibition at its fullest realization. The related publication received dedicated support from Furthermore, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. Meaningful support for A Site of Struggle was also awarded by local and community organizations, the Alumnae of Northwestern University and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Outside of exhibition grants, we have taken the opportunity this year to collaborate on grant initiatives in community education and engagement. An exciting success in framing new programs came through a recent award from the Academic Enrichment Committee of the Alumnae of Northwestern University. While modest, this grant will significantly bolster the ongoing impact of our commitment to student-led acquisitions by bringing artists to campus whose work was brought into the collection via these undergraduate-focused programs. It will reinforce the students’ work and foreground this part of The Block’s mission for the broader public. The grant will support our ability to include exhibition artists in The Block’s 2021-2022 public programming alongside Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection as well as A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Anti-Black Violence.
– Kate Hadley Tofness,
Senior Advancement Manager, Grants and Collection Council
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A year-end celebration with staff and student docents
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