Welmoed Laanstra is the public art projects curator for Arlington County, Virginia. As public art projects curator, her focus is on a creating a mix of temporary projects with more long term, permanent installations to energize and utilize the public space and to create a unique relation ship between art and the urban culture. In 2006, she co-founded Street Scenes: Projects for DC, a public art initiative that has installed and organized temporary public art projects throughout the Washington metropolitan area. Projects included IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono, Pas de Dirt by Liz Lerman at the National Building Museum, and FOR THE CAPITOL by Jenny Holzer at the Kennedy Center. In the summer of 2006, Laanstra curated "Site Projects DC," a series of temporary public art installations for the Washington Project for the Arts. As an independent curator in Washington, DC, she has conceived and organized engaging and well-received exhibits. These include "Civic Endurance" (Jacqueline Tarry and Bradley McCallum), which featured photographs and video of homeless youths in Seattle, and "Face Time" (Harry Shearer), which presented video of television talking heads sitting in silence. In the fall of 2005, Laanstra was the curator and organizer of "Found Sound," a public art program that presented sound art in sound booths placed on sidewalks across Washington, DC. Laanstra's innovative curatorial work has received critical acclaim from The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Slate, The Today Show, and other media outlets. A native of Friesland, The Netherlands, Laanstra holds a M.A. in Social Economic History from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.