\n
![\"Rhea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/rhea-nayyar-d-blank-r-g-s-500.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Leila](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Leila-dec2024-1.jpg\")
\n A black-and-white portrait of Leila Reichert, incoming senior curator at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (photo Garrett Ann Walters, courtesy Leila Reichert) <\/p>\n
The Weisman Art Museum (WAM) at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has appointed established curator, arts writer, and Hyperallergic contributor<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n In a phone call with Hyperallergic, Reichert said that the \u201ccommitment to equity and justice and empathy in the arts\u201d and an \u201cincredible sense of staff dedication\u201d 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<\/a>, an ongoing group exhibition about Indigenous resilience and characterization in American history. <\/p>\n \u201cKnowing that WAM is willing to put the resources and the time into that kind of programming was a really good sign for me,\u201d Reichert said. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Keep reading with your email \u2014 it\u2019s free<\/p>\n Create a free account to read more articles each month, and get the best of Hyperallergic in your inbox.<\/p>\n