The Block Museum of Art’s collection supports learning across disciplines through exhibitions, research, and class and co-curricular visits. One of the ways we grow this resource is through an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSAs), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates. Over the course of the academic year, students explore the principles and ethics of museum collecting. The experience culminates in their recommendation of one or more works of art, selected in response to a shared theme.
The 2024-2025 Student Associates recommended the acquisition of two works from She the Question, a series of digital comics by Chitra Ganesh. Drawing from mythology, popular culture, science fiction, and South Asian iconography, Ganesh’s work disrupts conventional storylines and centers queer, feminist, and diasporic perspectives. The series appropriates and reimagines imagery from Indian comic books of the 1970s and 80s, reframing them through a contemporary lens. Blending text and image, Ganesh invites viewers to question what stories are told, who gets to tell them, and what voices have been erased or overlooked.
This exhibition brings together the student-selected works with others from The Block’s collection that similarly explore the role of narrative, memory, and representation.