Rushton-Reed, Lynn

Rushton Reed currently serves as the City of Dallas Public Art Program Manager in the Office of Arts and Culture, where she leads a division responsible for commissioning, maintaining, and promoting public art across Dallas. She oversees a collection valued at over $150 million, including the historic 1936 Centennial Collection heritage portfolio at Fair Park.

With support from a National Park Service Civil Rights Grant, she researched and co-produced a PBS-premiered documentary on the 1936 Texas Centennial Hall. She has co-hosted 10 podcasts on the topic and is currently writing a book focused on the women of the Centennial.

Previously, Rushton served as curator for the City of Grapevine and as Executive Director of the Heard-Craig Center for the Arts. Earlier in her career, she held positions at the Kennedy Center and at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the Public art work, Rushton has taught university-level master classes and has been a guest lecturer at multiple institutions. She holds a BFA in Fine Art–Painting and a BA in Communication from Vanderbilt University, an MA in Arts Education from Texas Tech University, and has completed additional graduate studies in Art History (American Arts and Crafts) at Tulane University.

As an award-winning artist, she is a signature member of Associated Creative Artists and the Texas & Neighbors Regional Art Competition. Rushton works closely with Baylor Scott and White Art in Medicine and also serves on the board of the Red River Herding Club, is an associate board member of TXCERA—Texas’s emergency response network for art and cultural objects—and is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

She lives in her hometown, near her grown sons, with her husband and border collie, Bluebonnet.