Despite the temporary closure of the Block Museum of Art, one new hire is already focusing on ramping up the facility’s communication and education efforts.
Beginning next month, Susy Bielak will serve as the associate director of engagement and curator of public practice, a newly created position in charge of the museum’s education and communication efforts. The job will entail duties such as spearheading social media efforts and initiatives to connect the museum’s art collection with the community.
“I bring an approach to programming and communications that embraces thought-provoking and interdisciplinary content, experimental and participatory formats, multiple voices and perspectives, and throughout, a focus on bringing artist, campus and community together,” Bielak wrote in an email to The Daily.
Both a practicing artist and educator, Bielak has taught and displayed work across the country. Most recently, she was the associate director of public and interpretive programs at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Bielak said she is excited to engage with the Northwestern community and looks forward to increased interaction among the museum, students and faculty.
“I see students and faculty not only as primary audience members for the Block but as partners, ambassadors and collaborators with whom I’m excited to engage in projects at the museum and on campus, in Evanston and Chicago, and online,” she said in the email.
Lisa Graziose Corrin, the museum’s director, said Bielak’s position was partially created to reach out to students more effectively.
“You have to use totally different strategies than we have used in the past,” she said. “You have to think and structure your outreach using the strategies that students use themselves.”
Although the museum’s galleries are closed for maintenance until January, a lounge and study area for students called the Block Spot will open Oct. 16. Both Bielak and Graziose Corrin said they were excited about the Block Spot’s potential as a social hub on campus.
“The Block Spot speaks to the museum’s role as a place for social, artistic and intellectual worlds at Northwestern to come together,” Bielak said in the email. “The design was born out of recommendations from a Northwestern undergraduate class — a very tangible example of how we’re interested in integrating students, faculty and curriculum into the fabric of the museum.”
Bielak will speak about her new position at the opening of the Block Spot in October. Graziose Corrin said she thinks the space will be a popular meeting spot for students and is eager for Bielak to bring energy and creativity to campus.
“She brings the rigor of a public intellectual, the practice of an artist and the energy of 10 people,” she said. “I think we’re all going to learn from Susy.”
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