Louisa Penfold

Louisa Penfold is a lecturer and faculty co-chair of Arts and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work examines the role of contemporary art, early childhood, and play across schools, museums, and public spaces.

She directs Project Zero’s Art|Play, a National Endowment for the Arts-funded study looking at the integration of modern and contemporary art practices into public education. Developed in partnership with Boston Public Schools’ Department of Early Childhood, the Smithsonian Learning Lab, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Harvard Art Museums, the project investigates how contemporary art can support creative learning for both children and educators through curriculum design and professional development. This work builds on her doctoral research, a collaboration between Tate and the University of Nottingham, which explored the design of play spaces for children in modern art museums.

Penfold has been awarded fellowships and grants from the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ian Potter Foundation. She has also served as an expert advisor to UNESCO on the development of its Framework for Culture and Arts Education. Her writing appears in journals including MIT’s Journal of Design and Science, The Journal of Childhood Studies, Curator: The Museum Journal, and The Australian. She also maintains a blog for parents (louisapenfold.com) on supporting children’s creativity through contemporary art. 

Her forthcoming book, Every Child is an Artist: 32 Artist-Inspired Activities to Cultivate Your Child’s Creativity (Workman Publishing), will be published in Fall 2026. She is represented by Curtis Brown Literary Agency.