About

Jo Reinert is a multidisciplinary creative and museum professional based in Southern California, specializing in experiential curation, innovative engagement strategies, arts synthesis, and collection stewardship. Reinert is the City of Lancaster's Arts, Museums, and Public Art Manager.

As Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Ulrich Museum of Art, projects explored the design of space as an immersive intervention, give voice to historically underrepresented narratives and experiences, and integrate emerging technology as a tool for engagement. Reinert believes in the power of museums as civic spaces—where visual art serves not only as aesthetic experience but as a catalyst for dialogue, belonging, and transformation.

Reinert's current curatorial projects at the Ulrich Museum of Art include a monumental site-responsive installation by Abhidnya Ghuge (July 22 – December 6, 2025), Anne Samat: Avatars (January 22 – May 31, 2026), SYMBOLS OF GREATNESS: RESTORING TRUTH AND SANITY TO AMERICAN HISTORY, and In Place | Taiomah Rutledge: Origins/Evolutions (January 22 – May 31, 2026). Select previous exhibitions include Devan Shimoyama: Rituals (January 23, 2025 - June 14, 2025), Listening Devices: The Photographer and New Perspectives (January 23, 2025 - July 12, 2025), [RE]POSE: Leisure Bodies and Empowered Postures (Ulrich Museum of Art, July 29 - December 7, 2024), Dream Machine: Fantasy, Surreality, and Play (Ulrich Museum of Art, August 26 - December 7, 2024), Fully Dimensional: Artists of the Outdoor Sculpture Collection (Ulrich Museum of Art, January 25 - June 15, 2024), Nebraska Rocks: A Mid-Century Music Scene featuring the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame (Elkhorn Valley Museum, November 15, 2019 - February 15, 2020), which resulted in Nebraska's only permanent Music Hall of Fame exhibit; Folk Art of Mexico: Selections from the Boeckman Collection of Mexican and Latin American Folk Art (Elkhorn Valley Museum, December 4, 2018 - March 23, 2019), and Dress Code: Frills, Fashion, and Function (Elkhorn Valley Museum, November 16, 2018 - April 27, 2019). Reinert has contributed curatorial research and interpretive writing to numerous exhibitions, such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection (Tyler Museum of Art, 2016) and Ansel Adams: Early Works (Tyler Museum of Art, 2015).

Prior to her current position, Reinert served as Executive Director of Elkhorn Valley Museum, where she transformed the cultural and physical presence of the museum and expanded its audience engagement by creating new interdisciplinary exhibitions and permanent exhibits, establishing operational systems, developing new community programs, managing fundraising campaigns, and cultivating new partnerships with community organizations and businesses. Reinert previously worked in different capacities at the Tyler Museum of Art and San Antonio Museum of Art, as well as with a private collection in Texas.

Reinert has presented at the Kansas Arts Network Annual Conference, the Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference, the Mid-America College Art Association Annual Conference, the University of Texas at Tyler, the Tyler Museum of Art, and the Ulrich Museum of Art, in addition to guest speaking at various community venues. She has presented as a guest lecturer on topics related to curatorial practice, arts engagement, and object-based learning, and she co-organized and hosted the University of Texas at Tyler Annual Art History Symposium in 2016 and 2017. Reinert holds an MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Tyler, and a BA in Art History with a Studio Art minor from UT.

(Photo credit: Dimitris Skliris Photography, 2024)