Tijana Stepanovic, advisor Central and Eastern Europe

As part of the International Cultural Policy Team, I help cultural professionals seeking to work in or with countries in the Central and Eastern European region, before all in the four focal countries: Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Besides working with artists, I work closely with the Dutch embassies in Budapest, Warsaw, Kyiv and Moscow and the consulate general in St. Petersburg to ensure the best possible advice and help.

Working with different cultures comes naturally to me, I have done so ever since I was born. I inherited from my Hungarian mother and Serbian father the best of their respective cultural backgrounds, and my Dutch husband helps me to further discover and appreciate the beauty and complexity of various cultures. Perhaps this early exposure to the richness of diversity was my motive to study social and cultural psychology, art theory and literature in Budapest. Later I worked as a contemporary art curator and cultural advisor for different organisations: the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Arts (head of the international department), the acb Gallery (artistic director) and the OFF-Biennale Budapest (curator and board member). OFF-Biennale Budapest was one of the nine organisations invited to develop further documenta fifteen and was part of the Power100 list in 2020.

I have lived in the Netherlands since 2015. When not working at DutchCulture, I try to educate our two little sons to become passionate art lovers.