Nomad was founded in 2014 by Vanja Žanko, under Jelena Tamindžija Donnart’s leadership from 2017 – 2021, and with a new female leadership team since 2021: Ana Petričić Gojanović, Andrea Šarić, Daria Darmaniyan, Dora Zane, Jelena Tamindžija Donnart, and Vanja Žanko.
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Ana Petričić Gojanović, co-director (b. Zadar 1976, based in Zagreb), owner and director of PRiredba Studio, an agency specialized in communication, production and event management, which stands behind numerous cultural, artistic and lifestyle projects and events in Croatia. Together with her team, she has been approaching each project and client individually and dedicatedly for 15 years in order to provide them with the best communication and creative marketing solutions in an efficient and innovative way. From many years of experience and long list of projects, they could emphasize the production and communication management of the exhibition of photographer Peter Lindbergh in Zagreb, as well as Brigitte Lacombe, cooperation with festivals (Sarajevo Film Festival, Pula Film Festival, Ponta Lopud Festival, Art Zagreb, Zagreb Design Week), galleries and museums (the Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Museum of contemporary Art Zagreb, Museums of Ivan Meštrović, the National Museum of Modern Art, Gallery Kranjčar Zagreb) numerous promotions of books and films, guest appearances of writers, exhibitions and performances of domestic and foreign artists.
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Andrea Šarić, co-director (b. 1990, Zagreb) is a Zagreb-based creative director, producer and arts manager specialised in branding, storytelling, campaigns, and project strategy.
Andrea got a Master’s degree in Management of Creative Business Processes from Copenhagen Business School and a Master’s degree in Management and Organization at the University of Zagreb.With almost ten years of experience, Andrea worked both on local and international projects within the creative industries, visual arts and culture. In 2019 she co-founded creative studio Lightwork offering integrated custom solutions for selected clients and started a multidisciplinary environmental art project Crystal Clean.
Previously, Andrea built her professional practice as an independent consultant and as an associate director at Nomad. Her work is deeply inspired by contemporary art, nature, trends that disrupt the status quo, collaborative leadership, and authentic creative processes.
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Daria Darmaniyan, co-director (b. Dnipro 1992, based in London / Zagreb) is a creative strategist and communications specialist with over 10 years of experience in arts, culture and design industries.
With a successful record of creating and delivering communications and development strategies for the world’s leading institutions, creative businesses and tech companies in art & design, Daria has worked with clients including: Instagram’s official account @design and International Olympic Committee; museums Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore; art & tech platform Acute Art; Dubai Design Week and London Craft Week; as well as exhibitions and events during Art Basel and Venice Biennale.
She has also worked with private collectors spanning from digital to philanthropists across Europe, Middle East and Asia; and has led educational arts projects including the launch of the first series of art market conferences in Croatia at Galerija Kranjčar; a collaboration with a Singapore based educational and art advisory platform Metis Art; and Global Grad Show in Dubai.
Previous professional experience ranges from marketing at leading jewellery houses Van Cleef & Arpels and Stephen Webster; in-house roles at auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s; to organisation of events at Contemporary Art Society and individual art tours across London for young collectors.
Daria holds a BA degree in Curation and Communications from Central Saint Martins and an MA degree in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
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Dora Zane, co-director (b. Zagreb, 1990, based in Zagreb / Amsterdam) is a senior product strategist at Q Agency, a startup enthusiast & a co-founder of the Fond 5.5, which raised more than 4 million euros for the victims of the Zagreb and Bania earthquake in 2020.
With a proven success record of validating business ideas and putting them on the market, Dora helped more than 100 startup businesses to find a product-market fit and serve customers in the right way. She also supports corporates like Vattenfall, Philips, Disney, and Times and financial institutions like UBS, ING, and Crescendo to redefine their business propositions and develop new ones to keep up relevant towards desired customer groups. Her main strength is business creativity, which is undoubtedly inspired by many artworks and artist performances. Because of it, she finds Nomad extremely interesting as an organisation that can empower everyone who wants to open new horizons while supporting artistic creativity.
Dora holds an MA in Business Administration: Strategic & Organisational management from Vrije University Amsterdam.
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Jelena Tamindžija Donnart, co-director (b. Dubrovnik, 1989) is an art historian, curator, project manager, specialised in cultural diplomacy, economics and contemporary art market. She graduated in Art History and Croatian language and literature from the University of Zagreb and Università degli Studi di Verona in Italy. Tamindžija Donnart is a recipient of the Rector’s Award for Wikipedia Project of the Art History students at the University of Zagreb, as well as the Embassy of France Scholarship for the Excellence and CEEPUS program scholarships at the University in Vienna. She specialised in cultural diplomacy and international relationships at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin. After her internships at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014, she took part in and designed numerous contemporary art exhibitions at private galleries and international art fairs in Shanghai.
She currently works as a Curator at the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, where she curated Ahmet Ertug’s exhibition “The Vanishing Point” in 2017 and organized an exhibition “Oceans. Imagining a Tidalectic Worldview” in 2018 in cooperation with Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation. She writes extensively about art for numerous Croatian art magazines including the magazine of the auction house Kontura.
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Vanja Žanko, founding director and co-director (b. Zagreb 1980, based in Vienna / Berlin) is a cultural manager and curator with over ten years of experience managing exhibition spaces, cultural organisations and artist studios.
Art institutions that she has collaborated with include the Tate Modern London, Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Camera Austria Graz, and the Venice Biennial. Non-profit partnerships include the United Nations, Croatian Association of Artists, Little Sun Foundation, and the Motovun Film Festival. Philantropic foundations include the Lauba Foundation Zagreb, Adris Foundation, Fondation Beyeler, and the Bloomberg Philantropies.
Public service funding includes the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Croatia, Foreign Ministry of Republic of Germany, Austrian Cultural Forum Zagreb, and the City of Zagreb. For 6 years she has focused on working with artist Olafur Eliasson as his right-hand person. They have worked closely on strategic decisions and coordination with internal teams and external collaborators to turn his ideas into artworks, commissions, solo exhibitions, publications, and lectures.
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Raffaella Matrone, research assistant (b. Naples 1994, based in London) is a curator, writer and researcher for contemporary art. Interested in bridging cultures and fostering international dialogue, she has curated and co-curated exhibitions in Austria, Costa Rica, Croatia and the UK, as well as supporting the work of individual artists, such as Derry Moore Photography’s archive in London and the practice of Venice-based artist Eva Chiara Trevisan.
Raffaella initially started collaborating with Nomad in 2016 as part of her undergraduate internship. From 2018 to 2021, she then collaborated with Arts Territory in London as curatorial assistant. As an independent curator, her research focuses on the sense of belonging and identity, exploring the meaning of ‘place’ as a physical and abstract entity that is informed by a relation of people, culture, language and tradition.
Raffaella holds an MA in Curating & Collections at Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London, 2018) and a BA in Economics and Managements for the Arts and Cultural Activities from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2017). She was also part of the first Goldsmiths’ Summer School in Curating the Contemporary at the British School in Rome (2016) and took part in the BLOCKFREI Curator’s Agenda residency programme in Vienna (2016).
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Antonella Boldrin, project assistant (b. Rovigo, 1989) earned her bachelor’s degree in 2012 in Science and Technology of Cultural Heritage at the University of Padova (Italy) with the thesis “Characterization of pigments from Migdal synagogue wall paints (Tiberias, Israel)”. She attended «Globalization and Cultural Heritage» course at Venice International University (VIU) during the fall semester 2013. She got her master degree in March 2015 in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. During her studies she spent her curricular internships in the cultural field of her hometown: in the restoration laboratory of “Museo dei Grandi Fiumi di Rovigo” and in the theatre offices of ”Teatro Sociale” of Rovigo, Municipality of Rovigo.