Lauren Haynes has been appointed as the new executive director of Atlanta Contemporary, effective March 16. She succeeds interim director Everett Long, who assumed the role last summer after Floyd Hall's resignation. Haynes joins from the Trust for Governors Island, where she served as vice president of arts & culture and head curator, and brings extensive experience from institutions including the Queens Museum, the Nasher Museum, Crystal Bridges, and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
This appointment brings a seasoned curator with a national profile to lead a key Atlanta arts institution. Haynes's track record of championing diverse artists and her stated alignment with the center's mission of supporting artists and experimentation suggests a focus on artistic programming and stability for the non-collecting art center, which was founded as an artists' collective in 1973.