Mihaela Ion is a curator, cultural manager and art researcher based in Bucharest and educated between Paris, Nancy, Selestat, Strasbourg, London, Bucharest and Târgovişte (Gabriela Tudor Grant in cultural management, London (UK) at body>data>space, mentor: Ghislaine Boddington & Courants du Monde Grant from The French Ministry of Culture). She is the founding director of the design and art organisation, Atelierul de Creaţie Association, with the project Revista Atelierul and co-founder of the projects The White Night of Creators and Designers, Creative Night Talks, projects that are cofinanced during the years by AFCN, The Ministry of Culture, #StayHomeCreativ, One Open Night & many others.
Since, november 2022, she was elected as an International Board Member at AICA. https://aicainternational.news/whos-who
In the last 17 years, she presented papers on the subjects of Communist Art, Cultural Wars, contemporary artworks at the most important conferences organized in Europe.
She has a BA diploma in Art History, from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of History.
She has a MA diploma in “The Theory and Practice of the Image” from CESI (University of Bucharest & University of Architecture Ion Mincu, Bucharest) and a MA diploma in “History of art and the Philosophy of Culture” from the University of Bucharest. She has a PhD in Communist Romanian Arts, since 2013, under the guidance of Ioan Opriş, PhD.
She has an 13 years experience in writting and winning grants for her NGO- Asociaţia Atelierul de Creaţie (projects like Revista Atelierul, Noaptea albă a creatorilor şi designerilor de produs, Creative Night Talks co-financed by AFCN, Centrul de Proiecte Timişoara – Timişoara City Hall, Ministy of Culture from Romania) & other independent beneficiaries.
She graduaded the course EUHeritage (Matarahub, La Cultora, L’Universita Malta, Hellenic Open University, ENCATC, M2C), 2021. EU Heritage is a wide transnational initiative that brings together 9 partners from 7 European countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, Malta, Romania, Belgium) with different specialisations. In 2023, she graduated the course ”CLIP – Critical visual media literacy and empowerment”, UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union (coordinator), IULM University, Hellenic Open University, ALL DIGITAL
Since 2019, she is an Independent Reviewer: for Visual Art projects and Multiannual projects at AFCN (November 2019, October 2020) & since june 2021, for Primaria Municipiului Timisoara (Centrul de Proiecte) – Timisoara City Hall.
She worked in several art galleries in Romania, such as Atelier35, Artmark, Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Independent86.
She worked alongside Romexpo in the organising team from Atelierul de Creaţie NGO for:
- The Design Conference (co-organised with ROMEXPO & Dizainar.ro, Bucharest since 2017 -2020, every year in September). speakers
- The AMBIENT EXPO (Conference co-organised with ROMEXPO,Dizainar.ro, Bucharest 2017 – 2020, every year in April). speakers
In 2018, she was an university lecturer, teaching the course The History of Art Transactions at The University of Economics (ASE), Bucharest, Romania
Between 2019 -2022, she was an art lecturer at Calea Victoriei Foundation, teaching the courses Introduction in Contemporary Art, Urban Arts, Contemporary Romanian Artists.
She is a cultural communicator, she worked as Communication Coordinator for TAMTAM Festival 2019 – a festival with over 300 musicians and performers, 10 scenes & for vibrate!festival in 2020 (march – september 2020) ( a project cofinanced by AFCN).
She is the moderator for several art and design conferences.
She is an AICA (The International Association of Art Critics) member, Romanian Section. And since, november 2022, she is an International Board Member AICA https://aicainternational.news/whos-who In march 2023, she is part of the international Digital Strategies Committe AICA https://aicainternational.news/digitalstrategies
She studied chemistry at The Faculty of Chemistry, Bucharest University (without finishing the studies), and that’s why she has a vast activity in publishing articles with multidisciplinary/ interdisciplinary teams.
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◉ Research Gate Profile
More than a hobby, she is a drummer.