TAC Welcomes Our New Executive Director, Tracy Jonsson-Laboy

Tracy Jonsson-Laboy is returning to Rhode Island after spending three years in Sweden where she was an independent organizational development consultant and the Executive Director of the Rejmyre Art Lab Center for Peripheral Studies. She comes to TAC already well-versed in Rhode Island’s non-profit sector, as she was both Founder and Executive Director of Newport Art House, an artist-run contemporary arts organization in Newport, RI. Tracy’s work in the past two decades has been rooted in expanding resources for artists in underrepresented communities and in establishing place-keeping initiatives. She has experience sitting in many different roles within the nonprofit sector: serving on boards, grant writing, consulting, program management, and executive direction. 

She has a Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams University and believes that artists are expert gatherers and contextualizers of ideas and lived experiences and, by extension, central resources for spearheading placekeeping, placemending, and depth-building efforts across all sectors.

In 2020, Tracy served as policy architect for the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT) PVDx2031: A Cultural Plan for Culture Shift; a roadmap and community call to action in partnership with cultural leaders and ACT. Tracy is a practicing interdisciplinary artist exhibiting internationally. She is currently exploring conceptual craft and the racialization of materials in her For Flax Sake project, supported by the Rhode Island State Council for the Humanities, as well as the role of BIPOC craft and textile practice through Homespun, an Awesome Foundation supported project. She spins, knits, weaves, sings, plants and tends within these projects. 

We are delighted to have Tracy guide us as TAC enters a new era following Yarrow’s departure. She has the skills to help us with our strategic planning initiatives and to implement our new organizational mission and vision of producing exceptional visual public art and experiences with artists and communities designed to inspire joy, dialogue, and belonging.