The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art plays an active role at Northwestern University, a leading research university situated in the Greater Chicago area. The museum presents a rigorous and diverse program that reaches across time, place, culture, and media; acting as a convener for interdisciplinary conversations; being an innovative “third space” for teaching and learning; and collaborating with and supporting faculty and students.
The Block seeks a curatorial research fellow for an exhibition focusing on the Indigenous art history of Chicago, which has received a two-year research and development grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art as part of their Art Design Chicago 2024 initiative.
The Terra Foundation Curatorial Research Fellow will work in collaboration with a team of three curators.
This project takes a deliberate approach to recounting an underappreciated art history of Chicago from Native American perspectives. Chicago sits on the homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa; as well as the Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk nations. The site has long been a cultural and economic hub for Indigenous peoples and is currently home to a diverse Native community. With this acknowledgement as a critical reference and call to action, The Block’s project will explore the confluences that have shaped and continue to shape Indigenous creative practices in Chicago, putting the past in conversation with the past. We will develop Indigenous Chicago through a collaborative, decolonizing process that upholds Indigenous curatorial methodologies of inclusivity, reciprocity, and research shaped by community priorities.
This is the first two-year term of what is anticipated to be a four-year project. Renewal for a second term is dependent on grant funding. During the first term the focus will be on research and development. The ideal candidate will have a background in Native American Studies and experience with undertaking multidisciplinary research. Residency in the Chicagoland area is preferred and will be required once on-site work and research resumes as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
