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Galleries reopen September 22, 2022

Promotional image featuring watercolor by Mariah Umar of abstract organic shapes in cool blues with red and bronze accents.Promotional image featuring watercolor by Mariah Umar of abstract organic shapes in cool blues with red and bronze accents.
September 22-December 4, 2022

Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s – 1980s

From the 1950s through the 1980s, painters and sculptors throughout the Arab world explored the challenges and possibilities of abstraction in art. “Taking Shape”, an exhibition of works from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), presents the work of Middle Eastern and North...
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September 22 - December 4, 2022Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s – 1980s
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Explore Our Collection

The core of our current collecting mission includes a commitment to living artists; a connection between the past and the present; and a cross-cultural, global perspective.
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Explore Our Collection
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Teaching, Learning, and Research at The Block

We aspire to connect with every department and school at Northwestern and to make The Block meaningful to your work and to your students.
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Teaching, Learning, and Research at The Block

Upcoming Programs

Free and Open to All

“A museum is not a neutral space. Every exhibition we organize, every work of art we acquire, every program we host—requires choices and each is an opportunity to present with intent. The power of this moment includes a heightened awareness of the privilege to choose and what is at stake when we do it. ”

– Lisa Corrin, The Block Museum Ellen Philips Katz Director

Stories From The Block

Collection Talk: Will Wilson “Shiprock Disposal Cell, Shiprock, New Mexico, Navajo Nation” [VIDEO]

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An Immersive Practice: Conversation with Christopher Harris, Crystal Z. Campbell & Paige Taul—Audio

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Contemporary Resonances of the 1935 NAACP exhibition “An Art Commentary on Lynching” [Video]

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Holding Binoculars, Pointing a Camera: A Cinema of Birdwatching—Filmmakers Talkback

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Histories of Struggle: Allyson Nadia Field on “Wilmington 10—U.S.A. 10,000” [Audio]

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“May we all be free”: A conversation with Joshua Bee Alafia on bringing meditation to the museum

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

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Block Fellow Receives Indigenous Art Writing Award

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