The examined life of the museum

Art museums have spent centuries being defined by what they hold. The next century will define them by what they make possible. Focus is moving from the object to the questions it provokes, and from interpreting for audiences to convening opportunities for dialogue and shared perspectives that shape meaning.

Museums are relevant and meaningful when they, like people, live the examined life. This means accepting that their identities, and the very definition of their work, will evolve in response to the world in which they are part. For The Block Museum of Art, that has meant continually exploring how Northwestern’s DNA shapes the museum’s mission. How does The Block’s work complement the University’s commitment to interdisciplinarity? And how do we serve as a convener, bringing together scholars with converging interests and different areas of specialization?

Our future will center on faculty, students and research — encouraging colleagues in every corner of the University to integrate art into their teaching. Our student programs will reach across the whole of students’ lives here, from research labs to playing fields to the spaces devoted to their well-being, creating encounters with art that spark conversation and lead to a greater understanding of themselves and what they want from their lives. By 2051, all students will leave Northwestern carrying what art teaches best — how to read complexity, how to stay with ambiguity, and how to make meaning where no single discipline or individual perspective supplies the answer.