Works in Progress
WORKS IN PROGRESS is a podcast produced by the ArtLab at Harvard University. In this podcast, we speak with the contemporary visual and performing artists working at ArtLab. The ArtLab is helping create the conditions for the Arts to flourish at Harvard, and this podcast brings these artists and their ideas to you.
Works in Progress
Season 3 - Ep. 3 Louisa Penfold - ArtLab as third teacher
Works in Progress Season 3 Ep 3– Episode: Every Child is an Artist with Dr. Louisa Penfold
In this episode of Works in Progress, ArtLab Director Bree Edwards talks with Dr. Louisa Penfold, Faculty Co-Chair of Arts and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and faculty resident at the ArtLab during 2022 and 2025.
Dr. Penfold is the project director of Project Zero’s Art/Play, an NEA-funded study exploring how modern and contemporary art practices can be integrated into public schools. This groundbreaking project brings together partners from the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood, the Smithsonian Learning Lab, MoMA, and the Harvard Art Museums to reimagine how children and teachers learn through creative engagement, curriculum design, and professional development.
During her ArtLab residency, Louisa has led numerous hands-on studio workshops where students from the Graduate School of Education have explored New Materialism as a framework for enhancing creative learning and research.
Bree and Louisa also discuss Louisa’s new book, Every Child is an Artist, a guide for parents of young children that bridges her interdisciplinary work in contemporary art, early childhood education, and play.
Listen in to learn how Dr. Penfold’s research and practice inspire new ways of thinking about creativity, learning, and the role of art in education.
Thanks for joining us for Works in Progress. We hope these conversations give you a glimpse into the creativity, collaboration, and experimentation happening at ArtLab. To learn more, visit artlab.harvard.edu.
The podcast is recorded in the Mead Production Lab at the ArtLab in Boston, Massachusetts.
Hosted by Bree Edwards
Audio by Luke Damroch
Production by Kat Nakaji
Research by Sadie Trichler & Ria Cuéllar-Koh
Design by James Blue & Sonia Ralston