Walker's Peter Eleey heading to P.S. 1

ArtInfo is reporting that Walker Art Center curator Peter Eleey is leaving the Minneapolis contemporary art museum to head back to New York. Eleey's been at the Walker since spring 2007, when he was hired away from the public art organization Creative Time. I have an email into Eleey to confirm whether the news, from ArtInfo's Art+Auction gossip blog, is true.

Here's what ArtInfo says:

We hear that Peter Eleey, currently the visual arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, has been hired as a curator at New York’s P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Eleey will join P.S. 1 director Klaus Biesenbach as the first full-time curatorial hire since P.S.1 founder Alanna Heiss’s retirement in 2007, after which the Long Island City institution — which has been affiliated with MoMA since 2000 — has operated on a curatorial advisory model...

Eleey's The Talent Show is on view at the Walker through August 15.

(Here's my interview with Eleey from when he took the Walker job in 2007.)

Update: Confirmed. A Walker contact tells me that chief curator Darsie Alexander informed staff Thursday morning about Eleey's departure. In an email, she said he'll be leaving for P.S. 1 the second week of May.

"We wish to extend our very best to Peter as he returns to New York in May, and are pleased to see another talented Walker curator continuing to make his mark," she wrote. "Please join me in extending sincere congratulations to Peter before he leaves the Twin Cities next month. In the meantime, be assured that a search for a new curator is currently underway, and we will move as swiftly as possible to fill the position."

Needless to say, this is a huge loss for the Walker. And congratulations, Peter!