AppointmentSeptember 24, 2021
Alejandra Peña-Gutiérrez is named the New Director of University of Minnesota’s Weisman Art Museum
On September 15th Executive Vice President and Provost Rachel T. A. Croson announced that Alejandra Peña-Gutiérrez will be the next director of the University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum (WAM). Peña will begin her new role at WAM on November 29, 2021.
An internationally accomplished museum leader and arts professional, Peña currently serves as executive director of Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. In her new leadership role at the University of Minnesota, Peña will provide strategic vision, artistic direction, and executive and administrative leadership for the Weisman to build on its rich legacy, collections, and unique strengths—further advancing its excellence and impact as a teaching museum integrally linked with the University’s mission of education, discovery, and public engagement.
Peña brings to the Weisman an educational background in architecture and art history, along with nearly three decades of experience as an innovative and collaborative leader, curator, and educator in internationally prominent museums, cultural institutions, and arts professional organizations. Since 2013, she has led the Museo de Arte de Ponce, one of the largest art museums in the Caribbean and an institution renowned for its expansive collection of European and Puerto Rican Art. Collaborating broadly to reinvigorate the museum as a vital hub for the local community as well as a globally engaged museum, she has strengthened the Museo de Arte de Ponce financially, operationally, and programmatically, even in the face of extraordinary challenges including a devastating hurricane and earthquake. In 2021, the museum was awarded the U.S. National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries which make exceptional contributions to their communities.
WAM’s Interim Director and emerita Executive Vice President and Provost, Karen Hanson, says, “Peña is a dynamic and imaginative museum professional with decades of successful leadership experience in a variety of cultural institutions. She brings a strong international lens to the Weisman, but her work in Mexico and in Puerto Rico, particularly after Hurricane Maria, also makes plain that she will be intensely sensitive to the interests and needs of our various local communities and the many ways in which an art museum can serve both the campus and the broader public.”
Peña has an architecture degree as well as a master’s degree in art history from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where she has also taught. Before moving to Puerto Rico to lead the Museo de Arte de Ponce, she was Deputy Director-General of Artistic Heritage in Mexico City’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, an umbrella entity for 18 museums.
She will lead high-priority work to develop innovative academic collaborations across the University, working with colleges and centers to respond to teaching, research, and engagement priorities, while also working to deepen engagement with diverse voices and communities beyond the campus, particularly those that have been historically underrepresented in museums.
For more information visit: https://wam.umn.edu/
An internationally accomplished museum leader and arts professional, Peña currently serves as executive director of Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. In her new leadership role at the University of Minnesota, Peña will provide strategic vision, artistic direction, and executive and administrative leadership for the Weisman to build on its rich legacy, collections, and unique strengths—further advancing its excellence and impact as a teaching museum integrally linked with the University’s mission of education, discovery, and public engagement.
Peña brings to the Weisman an educational background in architecture and art history, along with nearly three decades of experience as an innovative and collaborative leader, curator, and educator in internationally prominent museums, cultural institutions, and arts professional organizations. Since 2013, she has led the Museo de Arte de Ponce, one of the largest art museums in the Caribbean and an institution renowned for its expansive collection of European and Puerto Rican Art. Collaborating broadly to reinvigorate the museum as a vital hub for the local community as well as a globally engaged museum, she has strengthened the Museo de Arte de Ponce financially, operationally, and programmatically, even in the face of extraordinary challenges including a devastating hurricane and earthquake. In 2021, the museum was awarded the U.S. National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries which make exceptional contributions to their communities.
WAM’s Interim Director and emerita Executive Vice President and Provost, Karen Hanson, says, “Peña is a dynamic and imaginative museum professional with decades of successful leadership experience in a variety of cultural institutions. She brings a strong international lens to the Weisman, but her work in Mexico and in Puerto Rico, particularly after Hurricane Maria, also makes plain that she will be intensely sensitive to the interests and needs of our various local communities and the many ways in which an art museum can serve both the campus and the broader public.”
Peña has an architecture degree as well as a master’s degree in art history from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where she has also taught. Before moving to Puerto Rico to lead the Museo de Arte de Ponce, she was Deputy Director-General of Artistic Heritage in Mexico City’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, an umbrella entity for 18 museums.
She will lead high-priority work to develop innovative academic collaborations across the University, working with colleges and centers to respond to teaching, research, and engagement priorities, while also working to deepen engagement with diverse voices and communities beyond the campus, particularly those that have been historically underrepresented in museums.
For more information visit: https://wam.umn.edu/
