Alex Bortolot is the Content Strategist at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. He spearheads curatorially-driven audience engagement opportunities by developing strategies designed optimize in-gallery visitor experience and collections-focused outreach programs, and works with the Deputy Director and Chief Curator to map out a content strategy that supports and extends Mia's global reach. A specialist in the arts of Africa, Bortolot has played a key role in reconceiving the African galleries, and is also the publication manager of the catalogue accompanying the 2013 exhibition “Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone.” He is the project leader of “Digital Diaspora: Reuniting the Arts of Islamic Somalia,” an online exhibition of Somali artworks co-curated with the Twin Cities Somali community to be launched in tandem with the 2016 exhibition “Islamic Africa: Art and Architecture.” Prior to his current appointment, Bortolot was an Assistant Curator at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. Bortolot also curated a ground-breaking exhibition on masks, performance, and modernity in Mozambique, East Africa, at the Wallach Memorial Art Gallery at Columbia University. Bortolot earned a PhD in Art History from Columbia University and a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation was awarded the triennial Roy Sieber Outstanding Dissertation Award by ACASA, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, in 2011.