Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah (she/her/hers) is a seasoned arts administrator, exhibition producer, curator, and researcher working in Washington, D.C.
Jadallah’s career and independent work span exhibition and program development and curation, cultural heritage protection, communications, and community engagement and outreach. Jadallah was most recently Director of Programs at the Qatar America Institute for Culture, where she oversaw exhibitions, programs, and partnerships. She has previously held senior-level roles at the Washington Studio School, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Art Fraud Insights, and International Arts and Artists, where she worked with numerous arts and culture institutions, technology companies, and other partners on over 20 major museum exhibitions including Pearls of Wonder: a digital era (Qatar Museums/Years of Culture at Qatar America Institute for Culture, 2023) Process and Practice: 40 Years of Experimentation (Fabric Workshop and Museum, 2017/2018), Treasure on Trial: Fakes and Forgeries in the Art World (Winterthur Museum, 2017/2018), Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of the Ebony Fashion Fair (2016-2018) and Intent to Deceive: Fakes and Forgeries in the Art World (2014/2015).
As an independent exhibition producer and curator, Jadallah has worked with various galleries, organizations, and partners. Past projects include curating Art In Isolation: Creativity In the Time of Covid-19 (Middle East Institute, 2020/2021) and Through Their Eyes: Moments Photographed by Syrian Children (US Fund for UNICEF, 2017) and producing Tania El-Khoury’s Gardens Speak (Middle East Institute/The British Council at the National Building Museum, 2016). As a researcher, Jadallah is interested in cultural diplomacy, and the alternative histories, new visual languages, and contributions of modern and contemporary diaspora artists to the art historical canon. Her most recent projects include curating More Than Your Eyes Can See: Contemporary Photography from the Arab World, an exhibition organized in partnership with Tribe Magazine at the Middle East Institute.
She has presented about the role of arts in education and as a tool for social change and cultural diplomacy at programs organized by Montgomery College, The Middle East Institute, ArtTable, Inc., Hillyer Art Space, and the College Arts Association Annual Meeting. She currently serves on the Arts at Mason Board (George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts), and previously served on the Executive Committee of the Washington, D.C.-region chapter of ArtTable, Inc. where she co-chaired State of Art5/DC: A Conversation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2019). Jadallah is a member of ArtTable Inc., Arts Administrators of Color, and the Association of Art Museum Curators.
She received a B.A. in Integrative Studies (Arts & Culture) from the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University, a Certificate in Photography from SPEOS Photographic Institute Paris, and a Certificate in Business Fundamentals from Harvard Business School Online. She recently completed an M.A. at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (summa cum laude), where she focused on modern and contemporary art, cultural production, heritage, and diplomacy from West Asia and North Africa. She is a Middle East Policy Council 2024 40 Under 40 Awardee, was in the inaugural cohort of Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics’ Student Fellows program (2020/2021) and a 2017 and 2019 D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellow. Her artwork resides in the permanent collection of the Department of State Office of Arts in Embassies. Her work has been featured on AlHurra TV, and in The Washington Post, DC Modern Luxury Magazine, Canvas Magazine, The New York Times, and more.