North Cook News

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University has appointed Kyle Stephan as the Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The role will see Stephan overseeing exhibitions, collections, and public engagement related to modern and contemporary art at the institution.

Stephan's career spans over ten years as a curator, scholar, and educator focused on global contemporary art, time-based media, and interdisciplinary curatorial practices. She comes to The Block after serving at Harvard Art Museums, where she began as the Hakuta Family Nam June Paik Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow and later as a Consulting Curator. Her work often explores the intersection of aesthetics and politics in contemporary art, with an emphasis on global artistic practices from the Cold War era and art from Latin America and the Global South in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

"Kyle Stephan brings a dynamic vision for the future of modern and contemporary art at The Block," said Lisa Corrin, the museum's Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director. "Her commitment to broadening the narratives we explore through art, her embrace of collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches, and her dedication to fostering understanding of contemporary artistic practice make her an invaluable addition to our team and to Northwestern. We are thrilled to welcome her to The Block."

During her tenure at Harvard, Stephan developed exhibitions and collections focused on modern and contemporary art, notably curating the first US survey of Fluxus artist Wolf Vostell. She expanded Harvard’s representation of contemporary voices through key acquisitions and co-chaired the museum’s Time-Based Media and Digital Art Working Group.

Previously, Stephan was an assistant curator for the exhibition "The Matter of Photography in the Americas" at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center, which challenged traditional photographic canons by presenting work from Latin America and its diasporas. Other projects include "We Live!: Memories of Resistance" and "Histories of the Avant-Garde: Downtown New York," a touring exhibition in Brazil.

Stephan's work outside institutions has involved organizing exhibitions and multimedia events at locations such as the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, London’s Hayward Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. She served as a curator of film and experimental media art at the British Film Institute for five years.

Stephan will bring her experience as an educator to her new role at The Block. She has taught at the University of Southern California and developed object-based learning initiatives at Harvard and Stanford. Her objective is to integrate the museum’s collection into the university's academic curricula as a tool for research, teaching, and creative exploration.

“I am honored to join The Block Museum and Northwestern University at such an exciting time for contemporary art and curatorial practice,” Stephan stated. “Northwestern provides an extraordinary environment for scholarly inquiry, artistic experimentation, and meaningful engagement with faculty, students, and the broader community. The museum’s commitment to interdisciplinary research, its engagement with global and local narratives, and its dedication to expanding the role of the academic art museum within the work of the research university align deeply with my own curatorial values. I look forward to collaborating with artists, scholars, and students to develop projects that contribute to and catalyze dialogue across the University.”

In her new position, Stephan aims to foster new acquisitions and collection presentations reflecting global artistic practices while highlighting artists associated with Chicago’s cultural history.

Kyle Stephan holds a Ph.D. in art and art history from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in film studies and comparative literature from Indiana University. Her dissertation focused on the intersection of art, politics, and technology in Latin America.

The Block Museum's Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art position was funded through an endowment from Lisa and Steven Tananbaum in 2017.

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is dedicated to questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across disciplines, with the visual arts at its core. The museum emphasizes the power of art as a source of insight and knowledge.