Natalia Bragaru’s education and professional career developed in the Accounting and Finance sector but after migrating to Australia she also developed an interest in arts. In 2014 she graduated with Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Sydney. As part of this Master course she undertook internships at two world-renown institutions – The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
During her Master studies Natalia engaged into the academic research projects, including less studied objects from the State Library of NSW collections. She has examined the State Library’s 1905 “Grace’s ABC” advertising brochure, presented as children’s picture book and described by the Library’s records as “possibly illustrated by Norman Lindsay”. Natalia’s research advanced the argument for illustrations attribution to Lindsay and its findings and outcomes have been published in the State Library’s magazine’s article of “Summer Daze: The ABC of Christmas Shopping”.[1]
During 2015 Natalia served on the Committee of the NSW branch of Children’s Books Council of Australia, (CBCA) assisting the organisation to attain its corporate sponsorship targets. Since 2020 to date Natalia is serving as the Treasurer of CBCA NSW branch.
Natalia collects original children’s books illustrations and has joined efforts with Imaducation Inc in an effort to expand it. The digitized collectiom can be browsed through the online Gallery of this blog.
At present, Natalia works for the Australia Council for the Arts, a Federal Government agency, which administers funding to the Australian arts sector. She is leading a team overseeing government’s investment into the major performing arts companies, including opera, ballet, orchestras and theaters across Australia.
Natalia’s home library includes over 1,000 illustrated children’s books, largely in English and Russian, but also a few in Romanian, Chinese and German.
[1] Read the “Summer Daze: The ABC of Christmas Shopping” article here (pages 26-27): http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about/publications/sl_magazine/sl_magazine_summer_2014-15.pdf
