Join Block Museum staff for an online talk considering artwork from the Block’s collection that reflects on the complexities of knowledge, fate, desire, and guilt, themes central to the 2026-2027 Campus Reading Program selection, Vigil, a novel by George Saunders.
Our Fall Quarter talk by Kirsten Lopez, Curatorial Coordinator, Collections Information and Digital Interpretation, will focus on Chart 35, Anatomy of Global Warming by Mark Dion, A Free For All by James Rosenquist, and Between Life and Life, by Will Barnet. The program will be facilitated by Isabella Ko, Engagement Coordinator and Educator.
The Campus Reading Program is run by the Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, and aims to engage the campus in conversation centered on a carefully chosen, thought-provoking book. The Block is proud to partner with the Campus Reading Program to explore the themes of this shared text, selecting artworks from the museum collection that can broaden discussions.
About the Speakers:
Kirsten Lopez (she/ella/they, Mexican/Guatemalan) joined The Block team in 2024 as Curatorial Coordinator, Digital Collections & Interpretation after completing her doctoral dissertation at UChicago on medieval tomb programs and contemporary installation art. Throughout her involvement in projects spanning public history at the Chicago History Museum, qualitative data analysis for the journal Modern Philology, and museum education at The Smart Museum of Art, Kirsten has developed a transhistorical, humanistic understanding of cultural production that considers art and artists within multiple, interacting contexts. At The Block, Kirsten continues efforts to make the museum’s online collection an accessible and robust resource for students, faculty, and community.
Isabella Ko aspires to create spaces where people can slow down, get curious, and reflect on the world around them—while in the company of art and others. She wonders about how to center critical pedagogical practices when facilitating art experiences and the role of cultural production within sociopolitical movements. Isabella is the Block Museum’s Engagement Coordinator & Educator and graduated from Northwestern University in 2020 with a major in art history and minors in French and Business Institutions. You might hear her before you see her (talking and laughing loudly with loved ones.)
The Block Museum of Art acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
Image credits: Will Barnet (American, 1911-2012), Between Life and Life, 1998, color lithograph. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Anonymous Gift in memory of Lorraine Agnes Stewart. 2000.8.
Vigil jacket design and illustration: Rodrigo Corral Studio.
Mark Dion (American, born 1961), Chart 35, Anatomy of Global Warming, 2021, screenprint on cloth and paper, with stained maple dowels. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Block Board of Advisors Endowment Fund purchase. 2025.10.1.
Cost: Free and open to the public
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