MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center has appointed Amanda Hunt as its new Head of Public Engagement, Learning, and Impact (PELI). She is currently the Director of Public Programs and Creative Practice at the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and formerly the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Walker Executive Director Mary Ceruti comments, “Amanda’s curatorial experience, commitment to museum education, and success in developing innovative and meaningful ways to engage audiences will be a great asset to the Walker and the communities it serves. I am thrilled to welcome her to the staff and look forward to the vision and creativity she will bring to the Walker.”

“After a decade in California, I welcome this next chapter and the opportunities to work with the vibrant communities of the Twin Cities. PELI is essential to the Walker’s ambitious plans to continue to serve artists and the public. The strategic vision Director Mary Ceruti, her team and the board have put in place is inspiring and I look forward to bringing my experience to the Walker,” Hunt remarked.

Hunt’s appointment follows the July 2021 arrival of Asli Altay, former Creative Director at Apple, Turkey and Executive Director of Future Anecdotes design studio in Istanbul, to lead the Walker’s Content and Communications division, which includes the design, marketing, public relations, digital media, and publishing departments. They join Henriette Huldisch, the Walker’s Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs as the creative and artistic leadership team who will collaborate with Ceruti on the Walker’s curatorial, engagement and publishing activities.

Before her tenure at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, Hunt was the Director of Education and Public Programs at MOCA, Los Angeles. She was a co-curator of the 2019 Desert X Biennial, former Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and at the Los Angeles–based nonprofit LAXART. Hunt’s exhibitions include Xu Zhen: In Just a Blink of an Eye; 20/20: The Studio Museum in Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art; Black Cowboy; The Window and the Breaking of the Window; A Constellation; Lorraine O’Grady: Art Is; Rashaad Newsome: THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE; Tenses: Artists in Residence 2015–16; and inHarlem: Kevin Beasley, Simone Leigh, Kori Newkirk, Rudy Shepherd, a multisite public art initiative commissioned in four Historic Harlem Parks.

Hunt produced two major initiatives in Los Angeles in 2012: The Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, coproduced by LA>