ABOUT
Natalia Mount is a Bulgarian-American curator, cultural strategist, and advocate for alternative economies in the arts. With over two decades of experience, she has spearheaded groundbreaking curatorial projects and led innovative art institutions in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work is rooted in a deep commitment to reimagining the structures that govern artistic labor and cultural economies.
As the founder of Art Agency Reframed, Natalia has established a decentralized, commons-based labor and resource network, championing the negotiation of value through the agency of labor itself. Central to her curatorial and conceptual practice is Performing Pro Arts COMMONS, a radical transdisciplinary project at the intersection of art and law, developed in collaboration with the Dadais Americanus collective, of which she is a co-founder.
A visionary in cultural organizing, Natalia founded Pro Arts Commons in Oakland, creating a critical, artist-driven space that operated as an alternative to institutionalized art structures. Through her curatorial leadership, she cultivated new coalitions and commons-centric networks, challenging traditional power dynamics in the art world.
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 work has been featured in museums and alternative spaces worldwide, and she has been an influential voice in rethinking the future of art through global speaking engagements, curatorial residencies, and educational workshops in academic and community settings.
From 2013 to 2023, Natalia served as Director and Chief Curator of Pro Arts Gallery, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most experimental and politically engaged art spaces. In 2023–2024, she undertook a yearlong fellowship and residency in Berlin, culminating in the presentation of her work at Scope Art Gallery in January 2024.
Natalia continues to shape the cultural landscape as a consultant and art manager, advising individual artists and small organizations. Her current clients include Kristin Leslie, PS1 Museum founder Alanna Heiss, abstract painter Judith Murray, and her favorite theater company, Royal Family Productions.
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.
