©Venerakakplaneta
crisis, creativity, collectivity
Now is a moment of opportunity to reinvent our cities and envision different urban futures, with culture at the centre and leading the change.
Leveraging expertise to create collective intelligence and collaborative, inclusive partnerships across diverse constituencies and sectors will be critical to success.
My multidisciplinary, cross-sector expertise is built from over decade in ground-breaking Institutes of Advanced Study and research teams in the US, Europe and the UK, advancing innovation by bridging worlds of academic theory and real world problems.
I also have industry experience working with world-leading clients and architects shaping the future of our cities, as an Associate at Foster + Partners, the award-winning global studio for sustainable architecture, urbanism and design.
I shaped a paradigm-shifting cultural strategy for 72 Upper Ground, giving space to creatives from minority backgrounds in London’s cultural epicentre, Southbank, as Senior Cultural Researcher and Writer for Futurecity, a leading global placemaking agency. I was the Senior Advisor and Strategist for a team research brief on sustainable vertical urbanism for NEOM, and tapped to advise on creating Ukraine’s first district of arts and culture in Kyiv.
Bio and full CV here.
cultural insight to foster civic thriving
For over a decade, I’ve been advancing research on the role of the arts and the built environment in fostering civic agency for the Thriving Cities Lab at University of Virginia’s Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture, where I’ve been a Fellow since pursuing a PhD in the history of art and architecture.
Leading a project team to make the case for beauty in an ecology of thriving cities anticipated many critical debates current today. Our Brief led to an invitation to the Ford Foundation and a later publication with Routledge. As part of a larger initiative, it produced tools for practitioners to measure and argue for investment in creating fairer, more vibrant cities for all.
Since then I have been commissioned by King’s Cultural Institute, King’s College London and the Global Cultural Districts Network for reports on best practices and strategic planning in the cultural sector. Currently I am a Senior Researcher at the new Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement at London Metropolitan University and Associate Lecturer for a new MA programme in Public Art and Performative Practices, where I contributed to a winning bid with my students, ALDGATE Connect and London Festival of Architecture to activate public space through art.
Among many publications, most recently I have written an evaluation article on The Art of Democracy for the Artichoke Trust, to inaugurate a new Research series for their radical public art initiative, The Gallery.org.uk. An invited essay for the Routledge Handbook of trauma-informed approaches to placemaking is forthcoming in Spring 2024.
from culture wars to common ground
I have worked in areas of extreme crisis - warzone and refugee - and am regularly invited to write, advise and speak on issues of critical contemporary concern, bringing academic expertise to wider publics and debates.
Most recently I have given keynote speeches on Culture as a Human Right, at the Nobel Peace Center, and on The Soft Power of Culture, in Tallinn, Estonia, at the opening of world music festivals celebrating diversity in a climate of growing prejudice and polarisation.
My expertise on the force of images, iconoclasm and the image wars led to an invitation as Associate Fellow of King’s Centre for Strategic Communications. As specialist adviser on the role of images in conflict, I contributed to a new NATO journal on Strategic Communications. Along with a group of senior scholars, I’ve been tapped to advise on programming for a major Mellon grant on the theme of Edge/Border/Conflict for the Clark Institute of Art, US. Following the Charlie Hebdo murders, I was invited to give a series of lectures to place the violence within the frame of a longer history of the West’s struggle over images, which gave rise to modernity.
My expertise as a scholar is based upon training in intellectual history and philosophy, combined with a long view of the stakes of culture through the history of art and architecture. I came to London in 2015 after winning an Andrew W Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where I contributed to a more public-facing role for the Research Forum, organising a major symposium on Art and Terrorism. I was then invited as a Fellow of the Center of Advanced Studies at the Free University, Berlin (2016-17), and returned as a Visiting Research Fellow at the newly-established Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London (2017-18). I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the International Council of Museum professionals, and endorsed by The British Academy in 2018 for the potential for world-leading research.
I am based in London and available to work internationally.