Gallery Talk: Looking 101

Details:

Join 2023-24 Block Museum Curatorial Intern Audrey Bannister (American Studies & French ’25) and Essi Rönkkö, Associate Curator of Collections and Academic Programming, for a gallery talk that will focus on Vik Muniz’s artwork Bacchus Astride a Barrel, after Rubens (2006) within the exhibition Looking 101. 

Block gallery talks explore exhibitions by posing multidisciplinary questions and perspectives, led by knowledge sharers across Northwestern and beyond.   

Looking 101 invites visitors to enter our teaching gallery and engage in a typical classroom activity: an exercise in close looking that can be used to analyze any work of art. Works on view are selected from The Block’s collection with the help of faculty members across campus to relate to themes in their courses.  

Participation level – light, participants may choose to share thoughts and questions during the gallery talk.

Programs are open to all, on a first-come first-served basis. RSVPs are not required, but are appreciated.

RSVP

About Program Participants

Audrey Bannister is a senior from Dublin, Ohio studying American Studies and French. Her academic interests include history and art, and for her thesis, she is currently researching Black influences on American popular culture with a focus on jazz music. Outside of academics, she competes on Northwestern's varsity cross country and track team. After graduation, she hopes to attend grad school and pursue a career in museum curation.

Essi Rönkkö is the Associate Curator of Collections and Academic Programming at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Her work focuses on collection research and curricular programming. Since coming to The Block in 2016, Rönkkö has co-curated several exhibitions including Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt (2018) and Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection (2021) as well as annual collection-based installations Looking 101 and The Block Collects. Prior to her appointment at The Block, she worked at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland. Rönkkö has an MA in History from the University of Tampere.

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu