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David Van Zanten curates Exhibit at Block Museum of Art

Apr 4, 2013 by User Not Found

Drawing the Future: Chicago Architecture on the International Stage, 1900-1925April 19–August 11, 2013
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University

The exhibition provides new perspectives on a critical point in architectural history while highlighting Chicago’s position as a leader in architectural and design innovations in the United States, Europe, and Australia. The exhibition has been curated by David Van Zanten, Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art History, with assistance from Ashley Dunn, 2011-2012 Block Graduate Fellow, and Corinne Granof, Curator, Block Museum of Art. An illustrated publication with essays by the curator and emerging scholars accompanies the exhibition.

Saturday, April 20
The Modern Capital: City, Utopia, or Spectacle?
Exhibition Opening and Panel Discussion
Reception: 2:00
Discussion: 3:00

To celebrate the opening of the exhibition Drawing the Future: Chicago Architecture on the International Stage, 1900-1925, the Block Museum will present a panel discussion that will connect past to present by considering the grand, utopian visions that inform the design of cities. Exhibition curator David Van Zanten will consider how the Griffin’s plan for Canberra embodied ideas of democracy, accessibility of government, and the integration of the natural surroundings, while two contemporary architects working in the US and in Morocco consider how their practices today. The panel the will consider how approaches to urban architecture and city planning function as both practical blueprints and symbolic ideals. Speakers include:

  • Moderator: Alison Fisher, Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture in the Department of Architecture and Design, Art Institute of Chicago
  • David Van Zanten, exhibition curator and professor of art history, Northwestern University
  • Marshall Brown, AIA, urban designer and architect, professor at IIT College of Architecture
  • Aziza Chouni, founding principal of Bureau E.A.S.T. and assistant professor of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.

The Honorable Roger Price, Counsul General of Australia in Chicago, will also make remarks in recognition of 2013 as the centenary of Canberra.