Lauren O'Neal

Choreographic thinking in curatorial and visual arts practice
research interests: curation, pedagogy, experimentation, architecture, dance, museums, galleries, academia, artistic research, process, interdisciplinarity, choreographic thinking, open-endedness, poetics, co-imagining, installation, invisible research, curatorial dramaturgy
affiliation: University of the Arts Helsinki
en

Lauren O’Neal is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, arts administrator, and educator. O’Neal holds a doctorate from the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, where she focused on the intersection of choreography and visual arts and the performative aspects of curatorial process and space. Her dissertation, "Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency," was published by Uniarts in 2023. O’Neal has exhibited and performed at the Portland Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Purdue University, the Institute for Contemporary Art Boston, The Foundry, and the Theatre Academy of Finland. She has been a recipient of grants and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, the Nelimarkka Museum, and the Somerville Arts Council. She has presented at conferences including the European Artistic Research Network (EARN) Conference, the ICOM/UMAC conferences in Kyoto & Tokyo, the College Art Association Conference, the Annual Women & Society Conference, and the Nordic Forum for Dance Research. Currently, she is an associate professor of the practice at the Boston University Graduate Program in Arts Administration, serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Artistic Research, and is a board member of Brickbottom Artists Association. Previously, she was the director and curator of the Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, and a visiting fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. 

 

research

research expositions

  • Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Open House: A Portrait of Collecting (2023) author(s): Lauren O'Neal published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
    “Open House: A Portrait of Collecting,” a curatorial project held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2015, is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” The "Open House" exhibition was initially about collecting and caring for objects, a traditional function of museums. Curating with a choreographic mindset encouraged me to address other questions, including how objects and collections foster emotional connections. My initial question for the project, “How to do things with objects?” soon became “How do objects arrange spaces of relation between people and ideas?” Themes include community, memory, identity, taxonomy, preservation, accumulation, value, story, exchange, and display. [This exposition corresponds to Section Five: Arranging Spaces of Relation(s): What Can Objects Do? in the printed dissertation.]
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  • Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Clew: A Rich and Rewarding DIsorientation (2024) author(s): Lauren O'Neal published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
    This exposition examines the curatorial project "Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation," held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2017. The project is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” “Clew” proposes a framework for curatorial dramaturgy and asks: What is the potential of a dramaturgical approach within an open-ended exhibition structure? Who, or what, is the curatorial dramaturg? How do materials and time contribute to unfolding exhibition narratives? [This exposition corresponds to Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the printed dissertation.]
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  • Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Being and Feeling (Alone, Together) (2023) author(s): Lauren O'Neal published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
    What "moves" in an exhibition, if not the bodies of artists, audiences, and objects? How does conversation move us? What can speculative artistic research offer? This exposition, "Being & Feeling (Alone Together),” held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2020, is part of my doctoral research project, “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” While some aspects of the project (including the title), were developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the project unfolds in relation to myriad cultural, spatiotemporal, and civic situations that the pandemic produced. This situation required experimental and responsive curatorial methods that encouraged the project to move in unexpected ways. [This exposition corresponds to Section Seven: Letting Things Move in the printed dissertation.]
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  • RUUKKU Journal: Lectio Praecursoria: Choreographic Thinking in Curatorial Practice (last edited: 2023) author(s): Lauren O'Neal This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
    RUUKKU Journal: Lectio Praecursoria: Choreographic Thinking in Curatorial Practice Lauren O’Neal presented this lectio praecursoria at the University of the Arts Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland, on 26.5.2023, as part of the public doctoral thesis defense for her project "Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency." Custos: Dr. Mika Elo, University of the Arts Helsinki. Examiner: Dr. Adesola Akinleye, Texas Women’s University. The dissertation project (including the publication and expositions): https://taju.uniarts.fi/handle/10024/7780.
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