Crina Mares
COUNTRY : Romania
CITY : CLuj-Napoca
STRUCTURE TYPE : Freelance, NGO
STRUCTURE : Cluj Cultural Center
FUNCTION: Cultural Manager, Project Manager

Main tasks

1. Strategy and implementation of activities within the Remarkable Romania program for the revitalization of network localities through the interpretation and promotion of cultural heritage;
2. Identifying opportunities for project development by attracting new localities to the Remarkable Romania network and new partners;
3. Coordinating relationships with institutional partners and project beneficiaries;
4. Project resource management, development of methodology, and project work tools.

About us

I studied biology. From here comes my love and respect for nature. Then, I worked as a museologist in two national museums. This sparked my interest in culture and cultures. For me, interacting with cultural and natural heritage is a privilege and the best learning environment where I have developed my research, contextualization, storytelling, content creation, and conceptualization skills. For almost 20 years, I have brought various objects, facts, or events into the spotlight, seeking and telling the stories behind them. Currently, I coordinate the Remarkable Romania program initiated by the Cluj Cultural Center, bringing together everything I love, admire, and respect. A creative and spontaneous soul, I associate culture with the freedom of thought, a sine qua non condition for a healthy society.”
I studied biology at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, then became a biology teacher, teaching high school classes for a period of two years. Later, I held the position of museologist at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, in the Natural History department. Three years later, I coordinated the project to redesign the permanent exhibition of this museum and was promoted to head of department. In 2004, I obtained the certificate of professional competence in museology, issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Labor, and in 2005 I obtained the rank of museographer 1A, the highest professional rank recognized nationally in the field of museology.
I started my career in museology in 2003 as a curator at the Museum of Natural History within Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu.
In 2006 I was appointed Project Manager of the reorganization of the permanent exhibition of the museum, which opened for the public in 2007.
In 2008 I was appointed Head of Department of the Natural History Museum holding this position for 10 months. In October 2008 I started to work at Artex Cultural Foundation in Bucharest as PR and Communication Coordinator. In the same year, I started to work as an Exhibition Consultant at Artex Services International in Bucharest, a museum services provider, being involved in over 7 major exhibition projects. Also in 2008, I was appointed Branch Manager of the Artex Services International company in Sibiu.
In 2015 I held the Event Manager position at the Astra Film department within ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, being involved in the organization of the Astra Documentary Film Festival. In 2016 I was appointed Head of “Franz Binder” Universal Ethnography Museum within ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, and from the beginning of 2018 worked within the Marketing department of ASTRA Museum as an Interpretation Specialist.
In 2019, I left the museum and started my job as a project manager at the Ballet Theatre in Sibiu, where I worked until 2021 when I took over the position of project manager for Remarkable Romania at the Cluj Cultural Center in Cluj-Napoca, a position I still hold today.

Current projects

Remarkable Romania, the strategic program I’m managing, is a network of communes that assign the role of engines for rural and regional development to heritage and culture. For the moment, the network includes 12 communes in Transylvania that benefit from training, administrative capacity building, exchange of experience, and national and international partnerships. They also receive assistance in creating a specialized heritage interpretation plan to help them leverage local resources, including the establishment of community cultural centres. The program is implemented in partnership with the Association Sites et Cités Remarquables de France and the Cluj County Council, under the patronage of the Ministries of Culture in Romania and France.

HERITAGE IN 3 WORDS

Identity, education, development

TOPICS I'D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT

Heritage interpretation methodology, heritage interpretation tools, community engagement, intangible (sensory) heritage, cultural entrepreneurship, heritage interpretation centers, heritage interpretation for children.
ALL EXPERTS