The front of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art on Northwestern's Evanston campus. Photo: Daderot / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Anyone can walk into the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, and nobody has to pay. The museum describes admission as free and open to all, which makes it one of the easier ways to see serious art in Evanston without a ticket.
The building and its setting
The museum sits at 40 Arts Circle Dr. It was established in 1980, and the original building was designed by Loebl Schlossman & Hackl. A sculpture garden designed by John Vinci was added in 1989. Reconstruction began in 1999, and the museum reopened in September 2000 in a glass, steel and limestone building by Lohan Associates, with Dirk Lohan, grandson of Mies van der Rohe, as designer. The rebuild roughly tripled the museum’s size and was largely funded by a gift from Paul Leffmann.
The collection
The permanent collection holds more than 6,000 works. It is strongest in prints, drawings and photographs by modern and contemporary American and European artists, with names such as Jasper Johns, Max Beckmann, Barbara Hepworth, Jean Arp, Joan Miro, Chuck Close and Carrie Mae Weems. Visitors can ask to see objects by appointment at the Eloise W. Martin Study Center.
The Eloise W. Martin Study Center matters because works on paper are the heart of the holdings. Prints, drawings and photographs make up the collection’s strongest areas, and the study center is the route to seeing pieces that are not hanging in the galleries. The collection also runs from Max Beckmann’s European modernism to Carrie Mae Weems’s contemporary photography, so a single appointment can cover a wide stretch of the twentieth century and later.
Exhibitions
Past exhibitions include A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde in 2016, William Blake and the Age of Aquarius in 2017 and 2018, Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt in 2018, and Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time in 2019, which later traveled to the Aga Khan Museum and the National Museum of African Art.
The museum’s website lists Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block’s Collection on view from Sept. 9 through Dec. 6, 2026. That show draws on the museum’s own holdings.
The museum’s exhibitions have often reached beyond the walls of Evanston. Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time went on to two other museums, which is a reminder that the Block organizes shows that travel as well as hosting them. Lisa Graziose Corrin was named director in January 2012, though readers should check the museum’s site for its current leadership.
Block Cinema
The museum also runs Block Cinema, its film program. For the 2026-27 academic year the museum is marking the cinema’s 25th anniversary with screenings, performances, research initiatives and student-led programs. One listed screening, on Nov. 19, is a 7 p.m. program of 16mm films from Indiana University’s Moving Image Archive.
Visiting
During the academic year the museum’s website lists hours of noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. The phone number is 847-491-4000. Hours may change in summer and around holidays, so check before going.
The museum belongs to Northwestern, but with free admission and public programs it works as a venue for the whole community, not only students.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
