Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah

Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah is an arts administrator, independent curator, and researcher whose work spans museums, art spaces, public art, cultural diplomacy, and policy. She currently serves as the head of arts and culture for the City of Frederick, Maryland and previously served as director of exhibitions and programs at Qatar America Institute for Culture. She is the principal of Art West Asia Projects, a mobile research + curatorial platform dedicated to promoting artists and scholarship from West Asia, North Africa and their diasporas through partnerships, programs and exhibitions in Washington, D.C., and beyond.

She has curated and co-curated several exhibitions featuring west Asian and North African artists, including most recently “Arab Pop Art: Between East and West,” Middle East Institute Arts and Culture Center (2025) and “Perfume in Exile,” Friends Art Space (2025). Her writing has been featured in CCAS Newsmagazine and OVER Photography Journal and will be included in the forthcoming anthology Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Palestine (Duke University Press). She was a 2024 U.S. Office of Personnel Management presidential management fellow and Middle East Policy Council 40 under 40 awardee for her work in international arts and culture. She holds an MA in Arab studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and a BA in interdisciplinary studies (arts and culture) from George Mason University.