EVANSTOM, IL.- The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, announces that Kathleen Bickford Berzock will retire from her position as Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs in June 2026. The Block is immensely grateful for Berzock’s extraordinary contributions to the museum and to Northwestern.

Berzock arrived at the University in January 2014, having spent eighteen years as Curator of African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her move to The Block was a natural extension of her commitment to African art and global art histories, given Northwestern’s renowned African Studies program and its exceptional Africana library resources. Across her tenure, she has championed exhibitions that connect global art histories to urgent contemporary questions, enriching Northwestern’s academic landscape and strengthening The Block’s position as a site for research and insight.

Her landmark project, Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time (2019), stands as a defining achievement, reshaping global understandings of medieval Africa’s artistic, economic, and cultural networks. This field-changing exhibition and book earned international acclaim, including a tour to Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum and Washington’s Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Most recently, Berzock co-led Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland (2025), advancing an Indigenous-centered methodology that foregrounded the voices and perspectives of four artist-partners. The project unfolded in close collaboration with Northwestern’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) and in dialogue with Indigenous community members. This work has had a profound institutional impact, setting new standards for reciprocity, collaboration, and relationship-building.

Berzock has also guided the museum in expanding its collection to support campus teaching and learning, championing art as a portal for exploring challenging ideas and fostering new perspectives. Under her leadership, the museum’s collection grew significantly in both depth and scope, with strategic acquisitions that opened new areas of collecting and expanded the representation of global art histories. She brought personal focus to acquiring works by Africa-based photographers and by Indigenous artists with ties to the Chicagoland region. Importantly, Berzock emphasized activation of the collection through the creation of an acquisitions process that prioritized meaningful integration into teaching, exhibitions, research, and object-based learning, ensuring that the collection functions as a living resource for the university.

Since joining The Block, Berzock has actively contributed to the Northwestern student experience. As affiliate faculty in Art History and African Studies, and as Professor of Practice in Anthropology, she has consistently integrated curatorial practice with academic inquiry, modeling for students how scholarship, museums, and public engagement intersect. She regularly connected classroom learning to the museum’s collection and exhibitions, helping students understand how ideas move from scholarship to curatorial practice and public presentation. Berzock has served as an influential mentor throughout her time at Northwestern, and multiple students she has worked with have gone on to pursue research and museum work inspired by her curatorial practice and scholarship.

Beyond the museum, Berzock has consistently demonstrated her stature as a leading scholar whose work bridges regional studies with global frameworks. In 2019, she was invited to present at Harvard’s Villa I Tatti for the “Crossroads Africa” conference, where she highlighted how the Caravans of Gold exhibition projected Africa’s central role in shaping early global networks to a broad public. In 2020–21, she was selected as a Getty Research Institute Scholar, joining an international cohort examining “The Fragment.” In 2025, she was an invited participant in the Clark Art Institute’s traveling seminar, “Afro-Eurasian Origins of Print,” where she contributed research exploring North and West African amulet and textile traditions within the broader context of Afro-Eurasian print histories. Berzock also participated as a subcommittee co-chair for the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) working group on Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices (CCRBP), helping shape national standards for ethical stewardship of African collections in North American museums. She is currently co-chair of the Making U.S. African Art Collections Accessible (MUSAA) committee of ACASA, an offshoot of the CCRBP that is engaged in creating a digital resource to make African art in participating U.S. museums searchable through a single online portal.

“Berzock’s impact on The Block extends far beyond individual projects,” said Lisa Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director, “As an institutional leader, she has contributed to shaping the museum’s strategic vision, its policies, and its culture. Her legacy is reflected in the work we do every day. She has been an invaluable thought partner throughout her tenure, and she will be sorely missed by all of us.”