Vanda Vitali |
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| Senior Advisor | |||
| IPT | |||
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United States |
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About Vanda Vitali
Veteran museum executive Vanda Vitali serves as Senior Advisor with Los Angeles-based IPT, consulting on issues of reorganization of governance relevant to cultural institutions. Ms. Vitali also develops strategies for reinventing museums as nodes within a larger network of regional and national entities. Her current work builds on decades of international experience advising and directing institutions such as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Vanda Vitali’s most recent executive museum position was at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand. As Director and Chief Executive, Ms. Vitali implemented employee development programs, introducing performance planning and new remuneration packages. As part of organizational restructuring, Ms. Vitali created job descriptions for all 200 of the Museum's employees, leading union negotiations and achieving the signing of a collective agreement within a year of initiating the process. She also instituted an institution-wide evaluative culture, hosting regional roundtable forums and inviting peer reviewers from New Zealand and abroad to evaluate the Museum’s work.
Vanda Vitali’s achievements with the Auckland War Memorial Museum over a three-year period were highlighted by a number of well-attended events and exhibitions, including Secrets Revealed, which presented a number of collection pieces not usually on public display. Ms. Vitali also arranged a great white shark’s live public dissection with only two days’ preparation time. This unique event generated significant worldwide interest, through traditional and online media venues.
Having earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science at the University of Toronto, Vanda Vitali undertook postdoctoral studies in Epistemology at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ms. Vitali engaged with a variety of museums, notably serving as the Arab World Institute’s Adviser to the President in Paris, focusing on heritage presentation and preservation. She also worked with the Museum of Carthage in Tunisia and the University of Toronto, in the role of Field Director, Transfer of Museological and Conservation Technologies.
Prior to her museum position in New Zealand, Ms. Vitali worked at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as Vice President of Public Programs and Director of Content Development. An experienced public speaker, Vanda Vitali lectures on a broad range of museum-related topics and has held lectureship positions with the University of Toronto and with École Polytechnique in Paris.
Vanda Vitali Links
