Lauren Haynes is Curator of Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Her most recent projects at Crystal Bridges include The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art (co-curator) and Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (institutional curator). Prior to joining Crystal Bridges in October 2016, Haynes spent nearly a decade at The Studio Museum in Harlem. As a specialist in African-American contemporary art, Haynes curated dozens of exhibitions at the Studio Museum and contemporary art institutions in New York. Haynes is a recipient of a 2016 Gold Rush Award from Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow.
A friend to Georgia’s contemporary art scene, Lauren Haynes was recently nominated as the first in a series of Visiting Curators with Flux Projects in Atlanta as well as having just contributed critical writing to a publication featuring an exhibition by Michi Meko. Haynes is the guest juror for the for the 44th Juried Exhibition at the Lyndon House Arts Center.