The Queens Museum announces that Lauren Haynes will join the team as Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs. She starts in her new role at the Museum in mid-July.

In this new role, Haynes will lead the team to curate timely and ambitious exhibitions and programs at the Queens Museum.
“Lauren is an exceptional curator who has spent her career championing artists and working to build a more inclusive canon,” said Sally Tallant, the Queens Museum’s Executive Director. “Her thoughtful vision, combined with her leadership experience, makes her a wonderful addition to the Queens Museum team, and I am thrilled to be working with her and welcoming her back to New York.”

“The Queens Museum is an institution I have long admired,” Haynes said. “Its connection to both global and local communities and embrace of diverse artistic practices provides unique opportunities for experimentation and radical inclusivity. After many years away, I am excited to make my return to New York, where I spent much of my early career, and to contribute towards the incredible and important work the Museum is doing.”

Haynes joins the Queens Museum from the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, where she serves as Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. She is the curator of the upcoming exhibition Beyond the Surface: Collage, Mixed Media and Textile Works from the Collection and co-curator of Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now at the Nasher.

As Director of Artist Initiatives and Curator, Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas, Haynes’s curatorial projects included Kenny Rivero: The Floor is Crooked; Crystal Bridges at 10 (co-curator); Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today (co-curator) and The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art (co-curator). In addition, she served as the institutional curator for Nick Cave: Until and the first US presentation of the acclaimed Tate Modern-organized survey, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.

Prior to Crystal Bridges, Haynes spent nearly a decade at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A specialist in contemporary art by artists from the African Diaspora, in her role as Associate Curator for the permanent collection, she oversaw collection care as well as acquisitions and exhibitions. She curated four main space exhibitions, including Alma Thomas (co-curator); Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art; Trenton Doyle Hancock: Skin and Bones, 20 Years of drawing (institutional organizer) and Stanley Whitney: Dance the Orange. As Assistant Curator, she organized the Artist-in-Residence program in 2011–12, 2012–13 and 2013–14 and curated over a dozen exhibitions.

Haynes has written on leading contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, Leonardo Drew, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Jennifer Packer, and Nari Ward, and is the author or co-author of several exhibition catalogs.