Louisa Penfold

Louisa is a Project Director at Project Zero. Her expertise focuses on contemporary art, early childhood, and play across schools, museums, and public spaces. She co-directs Art/Play, a National Endownment for the Arts-funded study with Steve Seidel, which explores the integration of modern and contemporary art practices into public school curriculum.

From 2015-2019, Louisa undertook a collaborative doctoral award looking at the design of children’s learning environments in modern art museums. Run as a partnership with Tate and the University of Nottingham (UK), this research examined how the coming together of a new materialist approach to education with the experimental practices of artists and designers can open up expansive possibilities for children’s creative learning.

As a Lecturer and the Faculty Co-Chair of Arts and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Louisa teaches courses on contemporary arts in education, arts research, and the practice of art education. She has also worked as a curator and consultant for national and international institutions including the Serpentine, the Ipswich Art Gallery, and MoMA. She also runs Art. Play. Children. Learning., a blog for parents on cultivating children’s creativity through art. Louisa’s research has been supported by fellowships and grants from organizations including the Smithsonian Institute and the Ian Potter Foundation. Her scholarly contributions have been featured in publications including MIT’s Journal of Design and Science, The Journal of Childhood Studies, Curator: The Museum Journal, and The Australian.