Dean Otto became active in film and video programming in 1985 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined the film/video department at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center in 1995, where he co-curates the Expanding the Frame series and oversees work from the Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection, as well as the annual Queer Takes series. He has managed the international tour of the series Magnetic North at 17 sites and coordinated the residencies of artists Arthur Dong, Cheryl Dunye, Christian Marclay, and Craig Baldwin. Otto served as a Pew Fellowships panelist in 2012 and an exhibitions LOI panelist in 2013.