Collections & Exhibitions

Given the dual roles and responsibilities that our department helps to oversee, it is always exciting when we are given the opportunity to contribute to creating exhibitions from our Collection.

Add to that the chance of celebrating our institution’s 40 Anniversary, and you start to get a sense of the exciting work that our team has helped undertake during the last year. All while remaining both flexible and vigilant considering the continued threat from COVID-19.

These exhibitions not only celebrated our Collection’s history, they also announced many new paths forward in our collecting strategy. This was evidenced in the many gifts to the Collection that we received this past year, and indeed the past several years leading up to our 40th Celebrations. This, in turn, created an active acquisition period where our team helped accession these many gifts and purchases, through shipping arrangements; receiving, unpacking and inspecting all new works; as well as entering them into our collection management software program, which in turn, helped make them accessible to the public through our recently launched online platform, eMuseum.

Not only were objects made available for study online in a very timely fashion, allowing people to access and research our Collection from anywhere in the world during the time of a global pandemic, but they were also made available for study in-person by our Northwestern University community. Keeping the health and safety of all at the forefront of our minds, our team made very creative use of our shuttered gallery space that we were forced to close during the COVID-related shutdown. They did this by temporarily turning our Main Gallery, the museum’s largest exhibition space, into a well-spaced study room. This allowed for both physical distancing and for the study of art objects from our Collection for faculty, staff and students. Many of these visits were related to the research that was needed to prepare for the 40th Anniversary exhibits and were part of our strategy of how we could continue to mount our upcoming exhibitions.

Finally, in light of all of our department’s contributions to the museum’s ongoing priorities, including teaching and learning, and expanding accessibility, I want to mention the extraordinary dedication of not only our Collection and Exhibitions fulltime team, but that of our contracted preparator crew, as well. Together, they represent an immensely talented team that helped us face every challenge and obstacle over the past year’s continued pandemic and have been unwavering in their commitment to helping the museum achieve our goals. All done with the greatest sense of professionalism and collegiality that often went above and beyond what one might expect given the pressures and stresses that were surely felt by all.

As we celebrate our past, it is gratifying to know how well positioned we are to continue our endeavors and tackle any challenges that may lay ahead based on how well we have responded to those of this past year.

– Dan Silverstein

Associate Director of Collections & Exhibitions

The main gallery set up for sicially distanced learning.