Shawn Lani

Shawn Lani is a practicing artist, educator, and curator dedicated to engaging people in public spaces. Over the last 20 years, he has created interactive installations for more than 50 national and international museums and public settings. He currently holds a senior position at the Exploratorium, where he founded the Studio for Public Spaces and directs the studio in its work, generating new ways to apply the Exploratorium’s inquiry-based learning theories to a wide range of public landscapes. Shawn is the recipient of a National AIA award and was the Principal Investigator on the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant-funded project Ciencia Pública: Agua. In this initiative, the Exploratorium collaborated with a San Francisco Boys & Girls Club to teach design skills to students as they created a parklet in the city’s Mission district. Shawn received his BA in English (Creative Writing) and Art History from Davis in 1992, and his MA in Museum Studies—specializing in educational design—from JFK University in 1995.