BUREAU OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Key Persons

Bergit Arends is currently British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History of Art (Historical Studies) at University of Bristol. From 2013-2018 Bergit was a Reid Scholar in the departments of Geography and Drama & Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, researching contemporary art, archives and environmental change in the age of Anthropocene. She has curated two new visual art commissions for the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. In August 2016 she participated in the first workshop in Karongi, Rwanda on cultural heritage protection and environmental conservation in the African context as part of the international Culture in Crisis programme by the V&A and the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the National Museums of Rwanda and the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. From 2005 to 2013 Bergit curated the contemporary art programme at the Natural History Museum London including exhibitions, commissions, and international artists' residencies, among others by Daniel Boyd, Hu Yun, and Sunoj D. Among the exhibitions were the touring group show Galápagos (2012-2013) and After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions(2009); as well as Lucy + Jorge Orta: Amazonia; Mark Dion: Systema Metropolis (2007); and The Ship: The Art of Climate Change (2006). For the museum's Treasures Gallery she commissioned the permanent installation TREE (2009) by Tania Kovats to mark the 150 years of the publication of On the Origins of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.

Job Titles:

• International Cultural Producer

Danielle Olsen is currently International Cultural Producer based at Wellcome Trust. She is a highly accomplished curator and producer, interested in exploring complex ideas in compelling and innovative ways, she thrives on working across disciplines and is increasingly inspired by artistic initiatives in the public realm. Recognized for producing critically acclaimed and inclusive work, Danielle curated Foreign Bodies, Common Ground, Art in Global Health (6 artist residencies in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and the UK) and Medicine Man (a major temporary exhibition at the British Museum, designed by Caruso St John). She also co-curated the Cabbie's Shelter Project which connected artists with the London's community of cab drivers through diverse and engaging site-specific commissions located in several of the surviving iconic Grade II listed shelters. In addition she has worked with Alan Fletcher ("The Art of Looking Sideways") and Theodore Zeldin ("An Intimate History of Humanity") and has extensive experience in the film industry (documentary and features, predominantly working with Dan Maslen).

Lucy Shanahan is an independent curator with over 20 years' experience of developing and delivering exhibitions and artists projects, currently based at UP Projects as Associate Commissions Curator. She has worked within several major institutions in London including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and was Senior Curator at Wellcome Collection before becoming an independent curator and consultant in 2017. Collaboration is at the heart of her approach, forging relationships between artists, collections, people and places and has extensive experience of originating and cultivating multidisciplinary exhibitions, undertaking research, content development and interpretation. Lucy has curated a wide variety of exhibitions such as War & Medicine​ (2008/2009), Skin (2010), Brains: The mind as matter (2012), Forensics: The anatomy of crime (2015), Electricity: The spark of life (2017) and Wellcome Photography Prize (2019). She has also curated a number of artist's projects and new commissions including Marion Coutts, Rhian Solomon, Aura Satz, Sejla Kameric, John Gerrard and Camille Henrot and has collaborated with a number of international curators and partner institutions ranging from the Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden to The Natural History Museum, London, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester and Teyler's Museum, Haarlem (NL). Prior to Wellcome Collection Lucy was Exhibitions Organiser at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.