The art of protest has taken many forms. Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art looks at it through the lens of anti-Black violence.
As the country tries to process a troubling aspect of U.S. history — mass shootings — we are reminded that there have been others interwoven into the nation’s creation, including anti-Black violence.
Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art has been showcasing American art centered on the theme since January with the exhibit “A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Anti-Black Violence.” The exhibit explores how artists have engaged with that violence and its accompanying challenges of representation — from the explicit to the abstract on topics that range from slavery, lynching, police brutality and suppression of civil rights.
According to curator Janet Dees, the exhibit looks at art between the rise of anti-lynching activist movements in the post-Reconstruction Era through the founding of Black Lives Matter to show a historical trajectory. And this is the last weekend it will be open to the public before it travels to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama.
“It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’s really to give a sense of how much there is,” Dees said. “I think that’s at the heart of one of the questions that the exhibition is exploring — looking at the different strategies that artists have used to engage with this issue and in that balancing the need to bear witness with the need for care.”
A long research and development process for “A Site of Struggle” entailed visiting different archives, talking to colleagues, advisers, and artists to figure out what objects would go into the exhibition. The works are carefully placed in order to facilitate engagement on visitor’s terms.
“It was really important to offer a variety of resources for visitors to support their experience with the exhibition,” Dees said. The site provides spaces for conversation about the ideas raised in the exhibition, and the chance to dive deeper into particular areas. There’s a resource room that contains a library of books that delve deeper into personalities like Ida B. Wells and topics like healing racial trauma. “There’s a reflection space where people can have the opportunity to sit and process what they’ve seen before going back out into the outside world,” Dees aded. “And there’s a guided meditation that’s accessible to support that.”
Questions the exhibit raises: How can art history help inform our understanding of racial violence and how art has been used to protest, process, mourn and memorialize anti-Black violence? If you miss the exhibit this weekend, a companion publication that shares the same name with the exhibition is being distributed widely.
“There’s the opportunity for it to live on as a resource beyond when the exhibition is closed,” Dees said.
The art of protest is a topic that “artivist” De Nichols is familiar with. The YouTube designer penned the book, “Art of Protest” in 2021 to speak to youth who are seeing all of the social ills at play, and may be searching for a way to contribute or express how they feel about them. Nichols was part of the creative team that created the “Mirror Casket” after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri. The casket is now part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
“Anyone of any age, who’s new to activism or new to protests might find this book valuable or in some ways a primer,” she said. Having participated and collaborated with various social movements and protests across the nation, Nichols brought her expertise to the page for others. “I really wanted to write a book that I wish I had as a young person. So often young people might be dissuaded from joining social movements because perhaps parents are fearful of them getting hurt or they think that they’re too young to understand what’s going on in the world. But young people are more conscious and cognizant of what’s happening than we give them credit for.”
Nichols said her activism started when she was very young in response to bullying in school.
“My intention with the book was not necessarily to tell people what to think, but to encourage them to think critically and to create ... look around and find the creative ways to articulate what they believe,” Nichols said. “Instead of trying to tell their child what to believe, or what to think about this, to instill within them the self reflection of ‘how do you feel about someone else being harmed, or someone telling a person that they can’t choose what to do with their body? How would you feel about these types of challenges if they came toward you? I think by parents and adults asking more questions to the children, they’ll realize that a lot of young people are intuitive, almost innately geared to think about matters in terms of harmony, fairness, and justice.”
“A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence” runs through July 10; www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. The book is by Princeton University Press. “Art of Protest: Creating, Discovering, and Activating Art for Your Revolution” is Big Picture Press.
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