Lauren Cross
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Design Studies
2022 UNT IAA Fellow
940-565-4537
Lauren.Cross@unt.edu
Art Building, Room 212
More about Dr. Cross
Lauren Cross teaches in the College of Visual Arts and Design for the Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies program. Her research addresses interdisciplinary topics within the visual arts and design, including critical theory, social practice, art entrepreneurship/arts administration, curatorial studies/museum studies, multiculturalism, and women's and gender studies.
Areas of expertise include 21st Century Art; Arts Entrepreneurship/Arts Administration; Curatorial Studies/Museum Studies; Critical Art Theory/Visual Culture; Social Practice; Multicultural Studies; Women's and Gender Studies; Arts-Based Research Methods; Qualitative Research; Active-Learning/Service Learning.
Cross is an artist, curator, and scholar with an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and a Ph.D. in Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies from Texas Woman's University, Denton. She is the founder of WoCA Projects in Fort Worth, Texas.
Cross teaches undergraduate courses in the IADS program, such as art and business, IADS topics, and museum studies. Her teaching champions active learning, service learning, and social networks with highlights being student-led symposiums about branding in the arts and ethics in art and design practice. From 2016-2018, Cross co-organized a lecture series with her departmental colleague Jennifer Way entitled Conversations: Art, Politics & North Texas, which brought art industry professionals, artists, and scholars to UNT to discuss the impact of politics on the local arts community.
Cross's research addresses critical multicultural approaches in fine arts practice, arts entrepreneurship, curatorial studies, museum studies, and art history. Cross has been a frequent presenter at academic and public conferences across the country and internationally, and is the director of the award-winning documentary, The Skin Quilt Project, which was produced in 2010 and was an official selection at the 2010 International Black Women's Film Festival in Berkley, California.
Cross has been recognized nationally and internationally for her art practice and community work, including featured works in museums and galleries across the U.S. and the 2015 Edinburgh Art Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She received the Third Annual Visionary Award from Fort Worth Weekly magazine in 2013 and was named one of Dallas' "100 Creatives" by the Dallas Observer in 2015. In 2018, Cross was selected as a Visiting Artist for the Center for Creative Connections at the Dallas Museum of Art and an inaugural Carter Community Artist for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In 2019, Cross was recognized as one of 13 Women Forwarding Fort Worth by Fort Worth Magazine. For more information about Cross, visit www.laurenecross.com.