EVANSTON, Ill. --- In addition to hosting several Chicago Humanities Festival events related to dance, nature and art this fall, Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art will also co-present a lecture by artist Mark Dion, best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. The Block will also open the Block Spot, its new Wi-Fi lounge.
For more information on these and other events, visit Block online or call (847) 491-4000.
The Block Museum of Art’s galleries are closed this fall, but the Pick-Laudati Auditorium is open for Block Cinema screenings, lectures and special programs.
The galleries will reopen in mid-January with two new winter 2014 exhibitions. “The Left Front: Radical Art in the ‘Red Decade,’ 1929-1940,” in the Main Gallery, Jan. 17 through June 22, 2014, will revisit a moment in American history when a group of artists embraced the motto “art as a social weapon,” dedicating their work and practice to activism. “Steichen| Warhol: Picture Fame,” in the Alsdorf Gallery, Jan. 17 through April 6, will examine the photographic legacies of Edward Steichen (1879-1973) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987), artists who shaped the way we envision celebrity, fame and glamour.
Northwestern’s Dittmar Memorial Gallery’s 2013-14 season opener, “Away From Home” by Eun-Kyung Suh, runs through Oct. 20. Suh’s solo exhibition of constructed silk panels and boxes includes imprinted photographic images and written texts that serve as a metaphor for memory and the immigrant experience of Korean immigrants and Korean adoptees in the United States. It will be followed by artist J. Thomas Pallas’ “The Institute of Encyclopedia Amalgamation,” Oct. 25 through Dec. 10,” an interactive exhibition invites visitors to engage with the collection. For more information, contact the Dittmar Gallery at (847) 491-2348 or Norris University Center at (847) 491-2300, email dittmargallery@northwestern.edu or visit Dittmar online.
Northwestern University Library hosts an exhibition that explores the history of Northwestern and beyond revealed in scrapbooks of a bygone era. “Past, Paper, Scissors: Scrapbooks from the Northwestern University Library Collections, runs through Jan. 3, 2014, in the Main Library. For more information, visit online or call (847) 491-7658.
DEPARTMENT OF ART THEORY AND PRACTICE
The department of art theory and practice at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences offers free public lectures by visiting artists throughout the academic year, including an Oct. 10 talk by Julia Fish, professor of studio arts in the School of Art and Art History at University of Illinois at Chicago. For more, visit Art Theory and Practice online.
MARY AND LEIGH BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum is located at 40 Arts Circle Drive, on the Evanston campus. Admission to the Block Museum programs listed below is free, unless noted. The museum is closed on Monday. For more information, visit Block online or call (847) 491-4000.
CONSTRUCTION ALERT
A long-term construction project on Northwestern’s south campus has limited access to the Block Museum and Arts Circle Drive. Free parking is available in the lot directly south of the museum. For directions and parking information, visit Block online.
BLOCK MUSEUM OCTOBER 2013 EVENTS
Department of Art History Elizabeth and Todd Warnock Lecture: Zainab Bahrani (Columbia University), 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, Block Museum. Professor Bahrani will deliver “The Double: Differences and Repetition in Assyrian Art,” the first of the 2013-14 Elizabeth and Todd Warnock Lectures. The event is free and open to the public.
Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), Live Dancing Archive (video screening), 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13. Choreographer Jennifer Monson’s video installation “Live Dancing Archive” documents a 2002 journey she and three other dancers took to follow ospreys as they migrated from the United States to Venezuela. The video complements Monson’s Nov. 3 CHF stage performance and discussion. Monson is the artistic director of iLAND (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance) and teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The event is free and requires no advance reservations. For more information, visit Chicago Humanities online.
Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF): The Cry of Nature, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13. Block Museum. Northwestern University art history professor Stephen F. Eisenman, author of the forthcoming book “The Cry of Nature,” uses Picasso’s “Guernica” and other artworks from the past 300 years to examine artists’ engagement with and empathy for animals. His presentation is part of CHF’s Richard Gray Visual Art Series. Free for teachers and students; $8 for the general public. There will be a $5 surcharge for tickets purchased at the door. Tickets are available online.
Block Spot Opening and Welcoming Party for Susy Bielak, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, Block Museum. The Museum celebrates the Block Spot, its new Wi-Fi lounge, and the arrival of Bielak, the Block’s first associate director of engagement and curator of public practice. Bielak will speak about her plans for engaging the Block on Northwestern’s campuses and their surrounding communities.
BLOCK MUSEUM NOVEMBER 2013 EVENTS
Department of Art Theory and Practice Artist Talk: Mark Dion, “Illuminating Explication of Complex Peripatetic Endeavors,” 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, Block Museum. Dion will examine how dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, science and environment. Dion’s work is featured in the upcoming “The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF): Mark Dion: Krypto-Zoologist, noon, Saturday, Nov. 2, Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago. Dion, whose work frequently mines – and mimes – museums, join Lisa Granziose Corrin, the Ellen Philips Katz Director of the Block Museum, in a discussion of his work, as part of CHF’s Richard Gray Visual Art Series. Tickets are $5 for teachers and students; $10 for the general public. Tickets are available online.
DITTMAR MEMORIAL GALLERY
The Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston campus, is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Admission is free. The gallery focuses on ethnic cultural art, art by emerging artists, art by or about women, artwork by Northwestern art students and traveling art shows. For more information, visit Dittmar online.
DITTMAR GALLERY OCTOBER 2013 EXHIBITIONS
“Away From Home” by Eun-Kyung Suh, Dittmar Memorial Gallery, through Oct. 20, Dittmar Gallery. Korean-born artist Eun-Kyung Suh’s exhibition explores the emotional resonance of the Diaspora experience of Korean immigrants and Korean adoptees in the United States. Her silk panels and boxes are imprinted with photographic mages and written texts that provide a window into their experience.
J. Thomas Pallas, “The Institute for Encyclopedia Amalgamation,” Oct. 25 through Dec. 10, Dittmar Gallery. Artist Jason Pallas is the executive editor of The Institute for Encyclopedic Amalgamation (IEA) collection, a repository and sanctuary for abandoned encyclopedia sets, the once ubiquitous tomes of knowledge. In this interactive exhibition, Pallas and the IEA create a sanctuary for tomes of knowledge now considered obsolete. The exhibition will invite visitors to engage with the collection, contribute to and borrow from the collection. The exhibition and an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, at the gallery, are free and open to the public.
ONE BOOK ONE NORTHWESTERN EVENT AT DITTMAR
Dinner at Dittmar, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, Dittmar Gallery. A discussion about the “Aspects of Seasonal Hunger and Nutritional Health,” as they relate to this year’s One Book One Northwestern selection, “The Last Hunger Season” by Roger Thurow, will be moderated by Northwestern anthropology professor William Leonard. Admission is free and dinner will be served. RSVP required by Oct. 21 to One Book to onebook@northwestern.edu.
DEPARTMENT OF ART THEORY AND PRACTICE
Northwestern’s department of art theory and practice at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences has scheduled the following free public lectures. For more, visit Art Tehory and Practice online.
Visiting Artist Lecture, Julie Fish, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, University Library Forum Room, Second Floor, South Tower, 1970 Campus Drive. Fish, professor of studio arts in the School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will talk on “reading between the lines, with pictures.” Fish’s recent work is on view in “Homebodies,” curated by Naomi Beckwith for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, through Oct. 13. For more on the artist, visit her website.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
The exhibition at Northwestern University Library at 1970 Campus Drive, Evanston campus, is open to the public daily from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Members of the Northwestern community with a valid WildCARD can visit during all open library hours. Admission is free. For more information, visit online or call (847) 491-7658.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FALL 2013 EXHIBITION
• “Past, Paper, Scissors: Scrapbooks from the Northwestern University Library Collections,” through Jan. 3, 2014, Main Library. In an era of Facebook and Instagram, it’s important to recall that once we collected our own histories by pasting them into scrapbooks. ”Past, Paper, Scissors” explores history at Northwestern and beyond as depicted by the photos, clippings, ticket stubs, faded flowers and dance cards included in scrapbooks of a bygone era. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, visit online or call (847) 491-7658 or contact Clare Roccaforte at c-roccaforte@northwestern.edu or (847) 467-5918.