Lauren van Haaften-Schick

Lauren van Haaften-Schick is an art historian and curator completing a PhD in the History of Art at Cornell University. She is a Fellow at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy at New York University Law School, and is a former Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow and Doctoral Fellow at Cornell Tech. She writes on the intersections of art and law, with a focus on the origins and legacy of the iconic “Artist’s Contract” by Seth Siegelaub and Robert Projansky in 1971. In 2020, the major anthology Seth Siegelaub: “Better Read Than Dead”: Writings and Interviews 1964–2013 which Lauren co-edited was published by Koenig Books and the Stichting Egress Foundation. Her writing has appeared in the Oxford Handbooks in Law, Performance Research, frieze, artnet and other venues. Alongside, she has curated numerous exhibitions and public programming series, including the exhibition Non-Participation traveling to multiple venues in the U.S. and Spain, and Redistribution in collaboration with artist Kenneth Pietrobono and hosted by Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space. Lauren serves as Advisor to the Serpentine Galleries Legal Lab, Consulting Historical Scholar and Board Member of the Estate of Seth Siegelaub / Stichting Egress Foundation, and on the College Art Association Committee on Intellectual Property. She received her undergraduate degree from Hampshire College, and has held professional positions in galleries, grant making organizations, and as an archivist and cataloguer for artists.