Lauren Haynes


Lauren Haynes is an American art curator who currently serves as curator of contemporary art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and curator of visual arts at the Momentary.
Haynes was born in Tennessee, then moved to the Bronx when she was about twelve years old. She studied at Oberlin College, where she received a bachelor's degree in art history. Beginning in 2006, she served as an associate curator of the permanent collection at the Studio Museum in Harlem. There, she specialized in contemporary African-American art and curated dozens of exhibitions both at the Studio Museum and at other institutions in New York City. She also authored several exhibition catalogs and catalog essays for the museum's exhibitions.
In October 2016, Haynes became the curator of contemporary art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the curator of visual arts at the Momentary. Exhibitions she has curated at Crystal Bridges include The Beyond: Georgia OKeeffe and Contemporary Art, State of the Art, Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today, as well as the Focus section of the 2019 Armory Show. With independent curator Teka Selman, she is to co-curate the inaugural edition of the Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art in 2021, which will be exhibited in museums, universities, and art spaces across Tennessee in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.