Leila Reichert Appointed as Senior Curator at Weisman Art Museum
The curator and writer is heading to the University of Minnesota institution after seven years at Indiana University's Eskenazi Museum of Art.
The Weisman Art Museum (WAM) at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has appointed established curator, arts writer, and Hyperallergic contributor Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert as its new senior curator. Set to begin her new role in January, Reichert shifts to Minneapolis after seven years as the inaugural curator of contemporary art at Indiana University's (IU) Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington.
In a phone call with Hyperallergic, Reichert said that the “commitment to equity and justice and empathy in the arts” and an “incredible sense of staff dedication” were qualities that stood out to her during her site visit at WAM, and also made note of her excitement about the dynamic cultural landscape of the Twin Cities. She also nodded to WAM curator Kendra Greendeer's (Ho-Chunk Nation member and descendant of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) work on 'Merciless': Indigenous Lands since 1776, an ongoing group exhibition about Indigenous resilience and characterization in American history.
“Knowing that WAM is willing to put the resources and the time into that kind of programming was a really good sign for me,” Reichert said.
Reichert said she wanted to grow the museum's American modernist art collection to reflect new definitions and directions of core American identity, and provide professional mentorship for her curatorial team.
