Networks often set the premises for long term collaborations, at times even across different fields, and they often have a great potential for generating innovation. Be it networks of alumni of an university, policy professionals sharing an interest in public management or sport club members, one often relies on their networks at different moments of their careers. While networks set important premises for their members, one needs to continuously foster them to create the appropriate contexts leading to successful collaborations and mutual exchange. Often, this potential remains unexplored.
Natalia Irina Roman has developed different methods to foster the potential of a network; from extending your network to activating inactive networks, her portfolio includes:
- Setting up professional networks on various topics such as digitalisation or energy and environment;
- Portraits, interviews, text, photo and video;
- Participative art, designing works together with a team or by engaging the members of a community;
- Other formats tailor-made for each target group, such as talks on various issues or exploring off beaten tracks in Berlin (in the photo above you can see a tour through a former hospital re-used as a cultural village; in the photo on the right you can see a tour focused on the history of the Berliner S-Bahn).
Portraits of the Hertie fellows is an ongoing series looking into the diversity of the backgrounds of the fellows of the Hertie Foundation. Musicians, policy experts or doctors – the fellows & friends programme of the Hertie Foundation is the bridge among this eclectic crowd.
One Month, 31 Portraits is a storytelling project realized between 2011 and 2014. Some of the stories were written together with other writers – Yamina El Atlassi, Jéremie Gerhardt, Roland Siegloff and Ana Marija Cvitic. These portraits cover different topics:
- Portraits behind independent art spaces: insights into the independent artist and curator scene in Berlin;
- Portraits on the former Tempelhof airport: Berliners and their new relationship to the former airport;
- Portraits of ships of a city without sea: house boats, floating taverns, getaway boats and cargo ships in Berlin;
- Portraits from traditional pubs (Eckkneipe) in all districts of Berlin: Berliner pubs with tradition from all quarters of the city.
