Lauren O’Neal

Senior Lecturer

Lauren O’Neal is currently a senior lecturer in the Graduate Program in Arts Administration and a recipient of a Designing Antiracist Curricula Fellowship at Boston University. Prior to joining the faculty, O’Neal served as the director and curator of the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy and as a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Previously, O’Neal directed and taught in the arts management program at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Additional teaching experience includes the University of the Arts Helsinki, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the Art Institute of Boston.

As a nonprofit administrator with experience as an executive director, board member, and program administrator, O’Neal has worked in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, fundraising, curation and programs, cultivating staff, volunteer, and board involvement, capital projects, community outreach, civic engagement, and arts-based workforce development with organizations including the Arlington Center for the Arts, the Brickbottom Artists Association, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Revolutionary Spaces, and the Somerville Museum.

O’Neal has exhibited and performed at the Portland Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, the Theater Academy of Finland, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Lexington Art League, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and Purdue University. Grants, residencies, and fellowships have included the Somerville Arts Council, The Nelimarkka Museum, and Artscape Gibraltar Point. O’Neal’s publications include Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency (University of the Arts Helsinki, 2023), “Holding Hands” (with Federica Cologna) in “Scores – From Situated Knowledges to Shared Action” in OnCurating (eds. Ronald Kolb and Dorothee Richter), and essays in Visual Artists Workbook, The Graduate Review, and Art New England.

As a passionate supporter of arts education, O’Neal was on the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Creative Teaching Roster, held Massachusetts PreK-12 art teaching certification, and has developed educational programs and curriculum for organizations including the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and Young Audiences. Additional service to the field includes serving as an editorial board member of the Journal for Artistic Research, an alumna mentor at Harvard University, and as a member of the Foundry Advisory Committee for the Cambridge Foundry.

O’Neal presents research at the College Art Association Annual Conference, the European Artistic Network Conference, the Annual Women & Society Conference, and the Nordic Forum for Dance Research. DFA, University of the Arts Helsinki, MFA, Maine College of Art, EdM Harvard University, AB, Wellesley College.

“Working in the arts requires passion, curiosity, flexibility, and tenacity. Students in the Arts Administration program embrace these characteristics and demonstrate their deep engagement with the field through their coursework, field study projects, and professional experiences. Together we are building a dynamic and sustainable ecosystem that recognizes the potential of the arts to transform individuals and communities.”