OUR MISSION
The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center.
We do this by activating art’s power as a form of insight, research, and knowledge creation that makes human experience visible and material.
Fueled by diverse perspectives and ways of knowing, we create shared encounters with art and with one another to deepen understandings of the world and our place within it.
OUR VISION
We envision a future in which:
The Block has a sustained impact on its diverse audiences who join us in asking bold questions and who find meaning in ongoing engagement with the museum.
The Block is integral to Northwestern's commitments to academic excellence, dialogue across differences, public discourse, and student sense of belonging.
The Block is considered fundamental to teaching, learning, and research by faculty, students, and staff across all of Northwestern’s twelve schools.
The Block consistently embodies the values and commitments of its equity statement within decision-making, in organizational culture, and in all aspects of its work.
The Block propels the work of academic art museums forward, contributing to their potential, deepening their relevance, and expanding their value.
OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
While The Block continues its ongoing work welcoming visitors to innovative exhibitions and programs, and developing and disseminating new scholarship, over the next five years, we will invest time and resources in the following areas to extend our impact.
4. Establish Three Core Northwestern Partnerships
Initiate and sustain discussions with leaders of Northwestern’s creative and performing arts, Northwestern’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, and Northwestern Libraries to identify mutual strategic alignments and potential shared infrastructures that impact teaching, learning, and scholarship.
5. Define Metrics and Enhance Evaluation to Shape our Story
Articulate clear metrics around our work, partnerships, and equity commitments, and create effective systems for assessing our impact; data that will allow us to expand the reach and quality of our storytelling, grow engagement with the museum, and broaden investment in our work.
OUR GUIDING QUESTIONS
The Block’s work and its organizational culture are fueled by questioning. At the center of who we are as a museum is our willingness to ask—indeed, our insistence on asking—questions of our work, our motivations, and our values. We also invite our partners and audiences to join us in reflecting on the role of art and the role of museums as shapers of knowledge. These questions guide our work:
How can we activate the possibilities of what art can do?
Experiencing works of art can open spaces within and between us. Museums are special sites for exploring these spaces. The Block convenes bold conversations that explore the relevance of art to our lives and that deepen our thinking about the world, ourselves, and our relationships with one another. We are as committed to exploring what art can do as we are to studying what art is.
What does it mean to be doing our work now and from here?
We deepen the resonance of our work by making decisions grounded in our time and place. We consider the needs of the current moment and its connections to the past. We think about our place in all its richness and complexity: within Northwestern; within the context of our region; and as part of the global community. We think about our place on Indigenous lands.
How can we continually live our values?
We strive to hold our commitments to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion as a fundamental framework through which we understand, pursue, and assess our work. We aspire to be an institution in which equity is fully present in the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our work. We acknowledge that centering diverse identities and perspectives within the museum is essential to our institutional excellence and sustainability.
How can the way we work be as important as what we produce?
For us, the journey is as important as the destination. Our most transformative efforts result from a museum-wide commitment to dialogue, collaboration, and reflection. Shaping our approach to the specific needs of projects and partners, we challenge ourselves to try new ways of working that often yield unexpected insights and outcomes.
How does our work connect diverse fields of study to yield new ways of thinking?
We believe encounters with art and artists can be a catalyst for discoveries that happen at the intersections of academic disciplines. Our work embodies this belief and amplifies Northwestern’s distinct commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and research. We are creative in imagining and encouraging collaboration among faculty, students, and staff from across the University that connects fields of study and changes the ways in which we think and work.
How can we expand the possibilities of what an academic museum might be?
We have, at times, found ourselves constrained by assumptions about what a university art museum is and does. Our new mission statement preserves an openness to how we define “museum” and how we execute our mission and vision. The Block is more than its gallery walls. Through our work within and beyond our building, we nourish inquiry, ideas, and insights.
1. How can we activate the possibilities of what art can do?
Experiencing works of art can open spaces within and between us. Museums are special sites for exploring these spaces. The Block convenes bold conversations that explore the relevance of art to our lives and that deepen our thinking about the world, ourselves, and our relationships with one another. We are as committed to exploring what art can do as we are to studying what art is.
2. What does it mean to be doing our work now and from here?
We deepen the resonance of our work by making decisions grounded in our time and place. We consider the needs of the current moment and its connections to the past. We think about our place in all its richness and complexity: within Northwestern; within the context of our region; and as part of the global community. We think about our place on Indigenous lands.
3. How can we continually live our values?
We strive to hold our commitments to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion as a fundamental framework through which we understand, pursue, and assess our work. We aspire to be an institution in which equity is fully present in the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our work. We acknowledge that centering diverse identities and perspectives within the museum is essential to our institutional excellence and sustainability.
4. How can the way we work be as important as what we produce?
For us, the journey is as important as the destination. Our most transformative efforts result from a museum-wide commitment to dialogue, collaboration, and reflection. Shaping our approach to the specific needs of projects and partners, we challenge ourselves to try new ways of working that often yield unexpected insights and outcomes.
5. How does our work connect diverse fields of study to yield new ways of thinking?
We believe encounters with art and artists can be a catalyst for discoveries that happen at the intersections of academic disciplines. Our work embodies this belief and amplifies Northwestern’s distinct commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and research. We are creative in imagining and encouraging collaboration among faculty, students, and staff from across the University that connects fields of study and changes the ways in which we think and work.
6. How can we expand the possibilities of what an academic museum might be?
We have, at times, found ourselves constrained by assumptions about what a university art museum is and does. Our new mission statement preserves an openness to how we define “museum” and how we execute our mission and vision. The Block is more than its gallery walls. Through our work within and beyond our building, we nourish inquiry, ideas, and insights.