Weisman Art Museum (WAM) is pleased to announce Kendra Greendeer as the new Ihlenfeld Curator of Collaborative and Community Exhibitions. Her selection is the culmination of an extensive national search by an interdepartmental committee at the University. She will begin her new role at the Weisman on July 8, 2024.
Building on the compelling and prolific collaborative projects of the former Target Studio program, as the Ihlenfeld Curator, Greendeer will infuse an ethos of collaboration into the whole of the museum’s exhibitions program. As a WAM associate curator, she will seek out and develop partnerships, on campus and across external communities, to create original, community-based exhibitions, and bring collaborative practice and community partnerships into the breadth of curatorial work at WAM. The Ihlenfeld Curator’s position is a distinctly co-creative role, integrating art with learning, civic engagement, and community development.
“I am honored to be part of the WAM team and bring an Indigenous curatorial approach to this position,” says Greendeer. “I look forward to expanding the collection to illustrate how communities across the campus and Minnesota are represented, creating community-based exhibitions, and working with students and community members. I look forward to collaborating with you in the future!”
“We’re thrilled to welcome Kendra to our curatorial team,” says WAM Director, Alejandra Peña Gutiérrez. “She brings with her a well-researched and nuanced understanding of art, artists, and forward-looking museum practice, combined with deep experience working collaboratively within communities important to the Weisman.”
A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and descendant of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Greendeer is an art historian specializing in Native American art. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earned her M.A. in Art and Museum Studies from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and her B.F.A. in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her research interests center on contemporary Native American women artists, Indigenous museum practices, rematriation, and the relations between land, materiality, and memory.
Prior to taking this position at WAM, served as Assistant Professor of Art History at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK). She recently completed a fellowship as the Paul Mellon Guest Predoctoral Fellow at the National Gallery of Art's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and has assisted with numerous exhibitions and community-based projects, including Weaving Together Our Cultures, the Prairie Interpretive Project, and the Teejop Community History Project.
This endowed curatorial position at the Weisman is made possible thanks to the generosity of Cindy and Jay Ihlenfeld.
