New leader is challenged to raise Atlanta Contemporary’s funding and profile

Born in Tennessee, Haynes moved to New York City with her family when she was 13. Over time, Atlanta has exacted more of a pull on her. Her mother and sister moved to Atlanta in 2003 and live in Johns Creek. Haynes, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in art history, has also served as a visiting curator at Atlanta’s Flux Projects and has participated in Burnaway’s arts writing program and as a panelist at the Atlanta Art Fair and Spelman College.

Credit: (Courtesy of Claudia Lucia)

Credit: (Courtesy of Claudia Lucia)

Many in the Atlanta arts community will be watching closely to see if Haynes can raise enough money, restore faith in Atlanta Contemporary and shepherd this beloved but often financially troubled organization into a brighter future despite an often brutal arts funding landscape.

Launched in 1973, Nexus (now Atlanta Contemporary) was founded by a group of Atlanta photographers as a grassroots cooperative and at one time included Nexus Press, a nationally known fine arts press that produced experimental artist books. The press ceased operations in 2003 because of funding challenges.

A central player on Atlanta’s art scene, Atlanta Contemporary hosts contemporary art exhibitions, panel discussions and lectures and houses 13 on-site artist studios within its 30,000 square foot campus.

But with the sudden resignation in August 2025 of former executive director Floyd Hall after less than two years on the job, Atlanta Contemporary has been the subject of speculation about its financial health. The organization has a skeleton staff of just three full time and one part-time staff member, compared with a staff of 28 in 1980. And after Daniel Fuller, the last in-house curator, departed in 2019, the Contemporary has often relied on outside curators to program the space rather than operating with a full-time curator on staff.

“It’s been on a downward spiral for a while,” said Louise Shaw, Atlanta Contemporary’s executive director from 1983 to 1998, who has been a close observer of the institution’s mercurial fortunes.

“In my opinion, it’s just surviving,” said board chair emeritus Tim Schrager, a member of the executive director search committee. “There’s so much potential for this place to thrive, which is what we want to see it do.”

Credit: (Courtesy of Atlanta Contemporary)

Credit: (Courtesy of Atlanta Contemporary)

The precarious economy has diminished overall private donations to the arts, and government support has withered over time, a state of affairs that has challenged many arts institutions around the country. The shuttering this year of the 50-year-old Atlanta arts magazine Art Papers, the longest-running nonprofit art magazine in the country, because of what executive and artistic director Sarah Higgins has described as “a harrowing financial crossroads” indicates a common vulnerability.

The Contemporary currently receives 49% of its funding from foundations, 12% from government grants, 13% from individual donations, 24% from earned income from studio and event rentals and the remainder from other sources, said Atlanta Contemporary’s interim executive director Everett Long. Its 2026 budget is $884,000, said Long.

Members of the Atlanta Contemporary executive director search committee are frank about the pressing need for Haynes, the only finalist for the job from outside Atlanta, to establish financial security for the organization.

Haynes is well aware of the necessity of bringing previous Contemporary funders whose support has lapsed back into the fold, Long said. He believes there is an “opportunity to understand who has given and what made them stop,” and to work to reengage those givers.

Said Haynes, “It’s definitely about how you build these relationships (with funders) and also develop a program and a space that people want to be a part of, and how you do that carefully and thoughtfully.”

Credit: (Courtesy of Atlanta Contemporary)

Credit: (Courtesy of Atlanta Contemporary)

Many people close to the nonprofit have called this a critical moment for Atlanta Contemporary, and members of the search committee are adamant that if anyone can lead the institution and fundraising efforts successfully, it is Haynes.

“I think the Contemporary is at a stage, of course, where it needs someone who can step up and step out and renew this community,” said Charlene Crusoe-Ingram, CEO of Meals on Wheels Atlanta and a High Museum of Art board member who also served on the Contemporary’s search committee. “I think the Contemporary can and will get back into connecting to the broader community. That’s really important, and I think Lauren can do that for them.”

Said Schrager, who also sits on the High’s board, “When it comes to contemporary art, the High Museum is great. It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the city. It has a huge budget. And after the High Museum, there just isn’t another institution outside of a university that does this kind of contemporary art program.”

Credit: Atlanta Contemporary

Credit: Atlanta Contemporary

Shaw believes the institution “could be a connector,” but added, “It needs to be bringing in work that we don’t see anywhere else. It needs to be part of a national conversation.”

Several search committee members commented upon how valuable Haynes’ connections to the Studio Museum’s director Thelma Golden — who Haynes said remains someone she can call with a question, concern or gut check — could be in putting the institution on the larger art world’s radar.

“I think the credentials that she brings to that role opens doors for her,” Crusoe-Ingram said of Haynes. “When you say Crystal Bridges and Studio Museum, I think people who maybe went away from the Contemporary, I think she can get them back. And I think she’ll be able to transport, some of those connections from the Northeast, perhaps, into the Atlanta Contemporary market.”

Haynes seems to understand the uniqueness of not just Atlanta Contemporary, but the Atlanta arts scene as a whole. “I think Atlanta is a city in which you have artists who are able to live and work in a way that makes sense, that isn’t always the case in a lot of cities, right?” Haynes said. “You have a really rich cultural ecosystem, and so one of the things that drew me to Atlanta Contemporary was the idea of being a part of this ecosystem.”

After the critical fundraising needed to hire more staff, those with a stake in the Contemporary’s success agree that Haynes’ next task will be hiring a curator.

“I always thought Atlanta Contemporary was at its best when it had a full-time curator,” Schrager said.

Whatever the vantage is on the best way forward for Atlanta Contemporary, those who interviewed Haynes are certain she is the right person to move the organization forward.

“Once she interviewed, it was pretty obvious to everyone that she’s the one,” said artist Chip Moody, an Atlanta Contemporary board member who was also on the executive director search committee. “She has a wonderfully endearing confidence.”

Said Schrager, “I think she’s the kind of person that the community is going to get excited about.”