Dr. Laura Wertheim Joseph Named Director of Curatorial Affairs

Joseph Joins the O’Keeffe from the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–Sept. 20, 2024–(Santa Fe, NM)– Dr. Laura Wertheim Joseph has been named Director of Curatorial Affairs for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Joseph, who was born and raised in Albuquerque, most recently served as the curator and director of exhibitions at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul.

In her role at the O’Keeffe, Joseph will provide strategic leadership for the Museum’s collections, exhibitions and research initiatives. This includes taking the helm on the reinstallation and artistic direction of the Museum’s collection in the dramatically expanded the New O’Keeffe, which is currently under construction. She will also lead all collections management, conservation, digital experience, research and curatorial efforts at the Museum.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Joseph back to New Mexico and have her join the O’Keeffe at such an exciting and pivotal time,” Cody Hartley, Director of the O’Keeffe, said. “When we were searching for someone who could lead the Museum’s curatorial direction into our next momentous chapter, we looked for a person with consummate expertise and modern leadership skills. Laura fits that bill. Her addition raises the bar on our efforts for the new O’Keeffe.”

Joseph’s work has received local, national, and international acclaim for fostering more complex understandings of American art, uplifting under-recognized creative practices, and modeling innovative methodologies. Since 2019, Joseph was the curator and director of exhibitions at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (the M) where she played a leadership role in reviving this historic institution. At the M, she led an organizational shift to a collaborative curatorial model based on centering, cultivating, and sustaining relationships across diverse communities of the Upper Midwest. She curated and facilitated exhibitions featuring artists of underrepresented backgrounds, including BIPOC and Latine artists, artists experiencing incarceration, artists with disabilities, and underrecognized women artists. She has also served as the gallery director at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, working to advance recognition and opportunities for artists challenging perceptions of disability.

“I was born and grew up in New Mexico, and like O’Keeffe, feel a deep connection to this place. Having built my career and established my family in Minnesota, I’m thrilled my husband and young daughter will develop their relationships with this place that has shaped me. I have learned from many wise and generous collaborators over the course of my career and am excited to help deepen and expand how we understand O’Keeffe’s significance. It’s an honor to work with this exceptional team to continue to situate her within the rich, complex history of New Mexico, and to foster new ways of seeing and approaching the artist’s interwoven art and life.”

Joseph earned a bachelor of arts from Macalester College, a master of arts from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and a doctor of philosophy degree in Art History from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

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For media inquiries, contact:
Renee Lucero | Public Relations Manager, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 505-946-1063

ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum celebrates the art, life, and independent spirit of Georgia O’Keeffe. Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit gokm.org

ABOUT DR. LAURA WERTHEIM JOSEPH:

Previous Experience

• Curator and Director of Exhibitions, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul
• Gallery Director, Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts, St. Paul
• Curatorial Advisor, The Diane and Alan Page Collection, Minneapolis
• Consulting Curatorial Associate, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston
• Research Assistant, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Minneapolis
• Guest Curator, Plains Art Museum, Fargo
• O’Brien Curatorial Fellow and Guest Curator, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

Selected Curatorial Credits

• Co-curator, Hazel Belvo: For Love (with Dakota Hoska, Oglala Lakȟóta), Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2023
• Coordinating curator, Im/perfect Slumbers (curated by Katya Oicherman), Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2023
• Co-curator, In Our Minds (with Brittany Kieler, Natalie Mazorol, and Interact artists), in collaboration with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2023
• Coordinating curator, Mestizaje: Intermix-Remix (curated by Xavier Tavera and Dougie Padilla), in collaboration with Grupo Soap del Corazón, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2022
• Coordinating curator, Sutures (curated by Suriya Kuth), in collaboration with Emerging Curators Institute, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2022
• Curator and co-juror, Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial and Many Waters community day, in collaboration with numerous community partners, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2021
• Coordinating curator, Outer Experiences: Black Life in Rural and Suburban Minnesota (curated by JoJo Bell), in collaboration with the African American Interpretive Center of Minnesota, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2021
• Coordinating curator, 1.5: A Southeast Asian Diaspora Remix (curated by Chanida Phaengdara Potter), in collaboration with the SEAD Project, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2020
• Coordinating curator, Choice of Weapons, Honor and Dignity: Vision of Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz (curated by Robin Hickman Winfield), in collaboration with Gordon Parks High School, Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2020
• Curator, Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection, Weisman Art Museum, 2020
• Curatorial advisor, Testify: Americana from Slavery to Today, Minneapolis Central Library, 2018
• Co-Curator, A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant- Garde, 1960s-1980s (with Lisa G. Corrin, Corrine Granof, Scott Krafft, Michelle Puetz, and Joan Rothfuss), Mary and Leigh Block Museum, 2016
• Curator, Heart/land: Sandra Menefee Taylor, Plains Art Museum, 2014.

Selected Publications

• “Legacy-keeping is Storytelling: Hazel Belvo Remembers George Morrison.” In The Magic City: George Morrison in New York 1943-60, edited by Patricia Marroquin Norby (Purépecha). Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, forthcoming 2025.
• Everhart, Heather and Laura Wertheim Joseph, “Anticipating Absence.” In Mickey Smith: Morphologies, edited by Heather Everhart. Macalester College, Law Warschaw Gallery, 2024.
• “Afterword: The Push and Pull of the Love Drawings.” In The Love Drawings: Only for Love, edited by Hazel Belvo. Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2023.
• “Iced Bodies: A Deconstruction.” Interview with Seth Parker Woods and Spencer Topel. Great Northern Reflective Writing Commissions, 2023.
• Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection, edited by Laura Wertheim Joseph. Weisman Art Museum/University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
• “Filmography” and “Unfinished Processes: Going Back and Reeling Forward in Ana Mendieta’s Films.” In Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta, edited by Howard Oransky.Katherine E. Nash Gallery/University of California Press, 2015.