EVANSTON, IL.- The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University announced the appointment of Kyle Stephan as the Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Stephan’s breadth of experience as a curator, scholar, and educator in global contemporary art, time-based media, and interdisciplinary curatorial practice will inform the shaping role she will play in The Block’s exhibitions, collections, and public engagement with modern and contemporary art.

Stephan brings over a decade of curatorial experience in visual and performing art at cultural institutions across the US, Europe, and Latin America. She joins The Block from the Harvard Art Museums, where she began as the Hakuta Family Nam June Paik Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow and was extended as Consulting Curator in the division of Modern and Contemporary Art. Her curatorial practice and scholarly research engages the intersection of aesthetics and politics in contemporary art, with particular interests in global artistic practices during the Cold War and art from Latin America and the Global South in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She explores history and artistic innovation through a range of artistic forms, including photography, performance, conceptualism, and time-based media.

“Kyle Stephan brings a dynamic vision for the future of modern and contemporary art at The Block,” said Lisa Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director of The Block Museum. “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.”

"Kyle Stephan brings a dynamic vision for the future of modern and contemporary art at The Block." --- Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director

At Harvard Art Museums, Stephan developed modern and contemporary art exhibitions and collection presentations, focusing on contemporary art since 1960. She curated Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life, the first US survey of the Fluxus artist, and contributed to the exhibition and publication Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation, which address artistic perspectives on globalization and national identity in post-1980 German art. Additionally, she expanded the museum’s representation of artistic voices with key acquisitions of works by Hito Steyerl, Iván Argote, Hannah Wilke, and Charlotte Moorman. She also co-chaired the museum’s Time-Based Media and Digital Art Working Group.

Stephan was assistant curator for the groundbreaking exhibition The Matter of Photography in the Americas at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center. Challenging traditional photographic canons, the exhibition presented conceptual approaches to the photographic medium by artists from Latin America and its diasporas. Other curatorial projects include We Live!: Memories of Resistance at Occidental College, an exhibition exploring migration and cultural memory through contemporary artistic practice, and Histories of the Avant-Garde: Downtown New York, a touring exhibition at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centers in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasilia.

As an independent curator, Stephan has also organized exhibitions and live multimedia events at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, London’s Hayward Gallery, Los Angeles’ REDCAT Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and the British Film Institute, where she was a curator of film and experimental media art for five years.

In addition to her curatorial work, Stephan is an experienced educator, having taught at the University of Southern California and led object-based learning initiatives at Harvard Art Museums and Stanford University. She has designed and facilitated interdisciplinary courses on art history, media, and performance, integrating museum collections into academic curricula. She will bring this experience to supporting The Block’s role as a resource for faculty and students where the museum’s collection is activated as a vital 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,” said Stephan. “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.”

Stephan’s work at The Block will include a focus on expanding and activating The Block’s collection. She will work closely with Northwestern faculty and students to integrate the collection into curricular and research initiatives, ensuring that artworks serve as dynamic resources for interdisciplinary learning across the University. She also intends to foster new acquisitions and collection presentations that reflect global artistic practices while emphasizing artists connected to Chicago’s cultural history.

Stephan holds a PhD in art and art history from Stanford University and a bachelor of arts in film studies and comparative literature from Indiana University. Her dissertation, Cosmic Noise: Juan Downey and the Postcolonial Politics of Cold War Communication, reflects her longstanding research on the intersection of art, politics, and technology in Latin America.

The Block Museum Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art position was established in 2017 through an endowment from Lisa ’86 and Steven Tananbaum, ensuring The Block’s ongoing commitment to presenting and studying the art of our time.