Bio+Résumé

BIO

Ștefania Ferchedău (b. 1979) is a cultural manager, artistic producer and consultant in the field of contemporary arts, working in Romania and internationally. Since 2002, she develops projects in the fields of performing arts, cultural management and policies and interdisciplinary initiatives (performing arts, visual arts, journalism, literature), as well as transversal projects (culture in education and community arts), some with a relevant international cooperation component.

Ștefania brought her background in literature and long track of experience in arts management in her close work with artists and organizations to accompany, produce, present and document a variety of works and projects over the past 7 years. Her interests include study of 1960-80s generations of dance makers and research into artistic works and practices, events, and situations that marked post-1989 performing arts and visual arts in Romania. For this purpose in 2016 she founded the Institute of the Present, an artistic structure developed together with art historian and researcher Alina Șerban.

From 2012 she co-directed ZonaD studio together with choreographer Cosmin Manolescu, initially a contemporary dance lab and residency space transformed in 2015 in a mobile platform for artistic research and professional development, a framework in which she programmed workshops and debates on the history and theory of contemporary dance. Among these was Performance and Choreographic Imagination, a workshop led by professor André Lepecki in Bucharest (May 2015), or the Reflection Platform – a traveling brainstorming residency between Romania, Portugal and Latvia, gathering a mixed group of dance professionals – artists, managers, curators, dance writers.

Since 2010 she worked freelance with various organisations and artists, as manager, creative producer or expert. Among these, between 2011-2015 she was co-initiator and manager of the European programme
E-Motional, led by Gabriela Tudor Foundation with partners from 8 countries and involving over 400 participants, and between 2013-2015 she produced Eastern Connection, a Romania-Japan contemporary dance collaboration.

From 2010 she produced and/or presented in Romania and abroad performances and workshops involving artists from Romania, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Iceland, Japan, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and USA, etc. Between 2013-2015 she collaborated with Zeppelin Association within the programmes “Connected. Things about future, cities and people” and “Carol Factory”, and since 2012 she collaborates with MetruCub Association in the frame of research and advocacy projects, as well as in the frame of the Culture in Education platform.

In 2016 she collaborated with Timișoara European Capital of Culture 2021 through the development of the programmes “Players of Change” and “Power Station”, engaging relevant artistic collaborations and partnerships and regional and European level, and after the winning of the title in the development of the action plan for the capacity building programme, “Power Station”.

Since 2014 she serves as jury member / evaluator of cultural projects for the Administration of the National Cultural Fund and ArCuB – Centre for Cultural Projects of Bucharest Municipality.

Former institutional affiliations include ECUMEST Association (2003-2008, projects coordinator and then executive director), Romanian Cultural Institute New York (2008-2010, events coordinator), Romanian Cinemathèque / National Film Archive (2002-2003, editor).

Ștefania Ferchedău has a rich research and editorial activity, since 2004 having contributed to the development of different studies, analyses and researches in regards to the cultural sector in general or to the projects in which she was involved. In this frame, she was: editor of the publication “Rethinking dance. ZonaD mobile platform & E-Motional – a notebook of unedited thinking” (Gabriela Tudor Foundation, 2015); co-editor of “Living library of Culture in Education” (MetruCub, 2015); co-editor and co-initiator of “Ioana Nemeș. Artist Book”, 2014, published by pepluspatru Association at the Spector Books in Leipzig; editor of the “E-Motional Bodies & Cities 2011-2013” catalogue (GT Foundation, 2013); associate editor of the manifesto “Charta of the Living Culture” – a programmatic document in support of the arts (2012, Coalition of the Independent Cultural Sector and MetruCub – www.culturavie.ro); associate editor of the 22 magazine supplement “A subjective cartography of the independent culture” (2011, Coalition of the Independent Cultural Sector); co-editor of the publication “A short guide to the Romanian cultural sector today”, published in 3 editions – English, French (ECUMEST, 2005-2008); editor of the section Region in Focus dedicated to Romania and Bulgaria in April 2007 in the frame of the portal www.labforculture.org; editor and producer of “Guide to Citizen Participation in Local Cultural Policy Development for European Cities” – editions in English, French and Spanish (2006, published by ECUMEST, Bucharest, Interarts, Barcelone and European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam, in the frame of the project “Active Citizens-Local Cultures-European Politics”); research and editing for the study “Funding opportunities for international cultural cooperation in/with South East Europe” (ECUMEST, 2005).

Contact: stefania@artsf.ro