ABOUT
Natalia Ivanova Mount is a Bulgarian-American curator, cultural strategist, and leading advocate for alternative economies in the arts. With over two decades of experience, she has spearheaded visionary curatorial projects and directed groundbreaking arts institutions in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work is anchored in a deep commitment to reimagining the structures that shape artistic labor, cultural value, and public discourse.
Natalia is the founder of Art Agency Reframed, a decentralized network that redefines the value of art through the agency of labor, collective authorship, and shared resources. At the heart of her practice is Performing Pro Arts COMMONS—a radical, transdisciplinary initiative exploring the intersections of art and law. Developed in collaboration with the Dadais Americanus collective, which she co-founded, the project serves as a platform for rethinking governance, equity, and artistic production in the context of the commons.
She is the author of Reframing the Value of Art and Art Labor in the Context of a Sharing Economy and co-author of The Commons: Of Friends and Lovers (with Marc Herbst). Her writing, curatorial work, and institutional leadership have been featured in museums, biennials, and independent art spaces around the world. She is a sought-after speaker and educator, known for designing bold public programs, curatorial residencies, and workshops that bridge theory and practice in both academic and grassroots contexts.
From 2013 to 2023, Natalia served as Director and Chief Curator of Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, transforming it into one of the Bay Area’s most experimental and politically engaged art spaces. In 2023–2024, she undertook a yearlong fellowship and residency in Berlin, culminating in a major presentation of her work at Scope Art Gallery in January 2024.
Natalia Ivanova, Portrait by Menno van der Meulen
Performing THE COMMONS
A central focus of my work is the exploration of intellectual property (IP) and its far-reaching implications for artistic production and distribution. In 2020, I co-authored and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office the text and script for a transmedia performance piece, Performing Pro Arts COMMONS (PPAC), under the pseudonym Dadais Americanus. This work serves as a shared intellectual space, offering artists and collectives the ability to occupy and collaborate within a common IP framework. By doing so, it disrupts traditional capitalist models and the dominant power structures that often suppress marginalized voices and hinder creative collaboration.
Through alternative licensing frameworks like the PPAC Art License, I strive to challenge conventional ownership models, fostering creativity and solidarity in the process. Initiatives such as the Teaching Institute for Art & Law reflect my commitment to equitable access to IP rights, pushing the boundaries of how we can reimagine the intersection of creativity, law, and community economics.
Looking to the future, I advocate for innovative approaches to IP management, including the
introduction of moral clauses and redistribution mechanisms within commercial agreements to essentially disrupt and occupy the intellectual property legal system. By pooling artistic works under collective ownership structures like the PPAC Art License, I envision a more inclusive and equitable creative landscape—one where artistic labor is celebrated, valued, and shared for the common good.
