Filippa Christofalou
Founder -
Director of Public Engagement
& Education
Filippa Christofalou is the founder and director of Public Engagement and Education at the Drama Science Lab (DSlab). Working as a performance artist, museum educator, and interdisciplinary designer for about twenty years, Filippa created the DSlab in Chicago in 2017, as a response to her observations and experiences on existing oppressive ways of learning and engagement in cultural institutions, museums and schools.
Filippa approaches the DSlab as an experimental platform that generates questions for the public and creates playful opportunities for the audiences. Her approach on Body Based Pedagogies, and Sciart Storytelling in the Galleries through Drama are her ongoing projects, always evolving and growing.
Filippa has designed and instructed a plethora of programs for kids and adults in more than 5 countries and has collaborated with several major Museums, Art Galleries, Organizations, Schools, Institutions, and Companies all over the world. She has an interdisciplinary training and studies in Geology, Theater, Science Education, Art History, and Drama in Education.
Filippa is currently researching body based pedagogies in art museums in Manhattan as a doctoral student in Art Museum Education at Columbia University, New York.
Galini Gkartzonika
Galini holds a Masters in Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Counseling from Naropa University, a Masters in Linguistics, and a Bachelors in Psychology. After residing in Chicago for 13 years, Galini moved to Athens where she works mainly with LGBTQ+ folx in Greece and abroad.
Galini enjoys experimenting with her practice in creative ways, such as the SciaArt festival. She also believes in multiculturalism, heterogeneity, social justice and community and will spend hours in conversations about mindfulness and tattoos. Galini loves stories, and will lean on listening closely "...no matter how people choose to tell them."
Nikoleta Balothiari
Visual Designer
Nikoleta Balothiari is our Visual designer. She created our brand and she crafts most of our communication material. With her experience, knowledge, and creativity, she gives color and shape to our content. Her creative studio Skafandro has designed several projects so far for Companies, Festivals, and Organisations all over the world. One of the most vital aspects of her work is designing a new engaging visual language each time. And you guessed it, her office is where her laptop (and her heart) is. Lately, she has been going about with Ai Wei Wei’s quote “The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility”.
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Minne Atairu
Minne is an interdisciplinary Artist, and doctoral student at Columbia University. Minne's research emerges at the intersection of Machine Learning, Art Education and Hip-Hop Pedagogy. Through the use of Artificial Intelligence (StyleGAN, GPT-3), Minne recombines historical fragments, sculptures, texts, images and sounds to generate synthetic Benin Bronzes which often hinge on questions of repatriation, and post-repatriation. Minne has exhibited and performed at The Harvard Art Museums, Boston (2022); Markk Museum, Hamburg (2021 – ); SOAS Brunei Gallery University of London (2022); Microscope Gallery, New York (2022) and Fleming Museum of Art, Vermont (2021). She is the recipient of the 2021 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology (Global South Award).
Prior to attending Columbia University, Minne worked on digital engagement projects at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Museum for African Art, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Ford's Theater in Washington DC. She holds an MA in Museum Studies from The George Washington University, DC and BA in Creative Arts from University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. Minne is currently a metaLAB Affiliate at Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
Kat Buckley
Curator
Kat is an independent curator of interdisciplinary art. She holds a Masters of Arts degree in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism. She is also the Assistant Director of the Visual Resources Center in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. She has presented her research internationally and is a published scholar. Most recently, she was Shortlisted for a Study/Research Fulbright Open Award to the United Kingdom. Her other recently curated exhibitions include Fabric of the Universe at the Adler Planetarium and the 2017 Masters of Fine Arts Show at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Eva Karatairi
Scientific Content Editor
Eva makes sure that our projects are scientific accurate -she reads our scenarios and projects with the tenderness of an art lover and the thoroughness of a scientist. Eva is a chemist with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and she is currently working as a science writer and educator, making science simple and easy for everyone. Eva lives in Berlin.