NATALIA IVANOVA: THE SECRET SAUCE OF ART AGENCY REFRAMED

Natalia Ivanova is a Bulgarian-American curator, arts entrepreneur, and writer based in New York City. For over two decades, her work has advanced artist-centered, commons-based cultural initiatives that expand art’s civic role and reimagine how cultural value is created and shared. 

A collaborator to artists across disciplines and generations, she has curated exhibitions, produced site-specific projects, and mentored emerging practitioners and institutions internationally. From 2014 to 2024, Natalia served as Executive Director of Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, where she founded an innovative art commons and led major fundraising efforts, securing millions in public and private support for equity-driven cultural systems. 

She is the author of Reframing the Value of Art and Fair Labor in the Context of a Sharing Economy, published by The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, Shareable, and Pro Arts COMMONS Press, and the co-author, with Marc Herbst, of The Commons: Of Friends and Lovers, both widely cited in academic and public discourse.

Natalia is deeply committed to international exchange and the radical act of listening, whether in boardrooms, classrooms, public parks, or city streets. For her, connection emerges through conversation, reciprocity, and serendipity; she believes that true common ground is always possible when we open ourselves to others and dismantle the toxic dynamics that often divide artists, institutions, and communities.