Olga works with artists, museums, and researchers to bring local histories into public view through exhibitions, writing, and long-term collaborations.
Still from The Calm Steps Behind · Ingela Johansson
Still from The Calm Steps Behind · Ingela Johansson
Felicias dans, 2005–2006 · Kajsa Zetterquist
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At Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Olga contributes archival research, essays, exhibitions, and zines to Women in the North, a long-term project curated by Maria Lind. Her contributions include The Warmth of the Invisible Sun, a publication devoted to Evgenia Patsia and the Kola North.
Featured publication
The Warmth of the Invisible SunEvgenia Patsia and the Kola North
Apatity, Murmansk Region, 1970s–80s · Original source unknown
Painting at a Time of Upheaval · Gallery “M”, 1991
Artists and visitors at Gallery “M” · Apatity, 1991
The Gallery of Modern Art · Gallery “M”, 1991
The art scene in Apatity · RAAN collection image
Art from the Russian Arctic · Croydon, 1994
Igor Tchaikovsky and guests of Gallery “M” · 1996
Installing the “13 Cosmonauts” mosaic · 2019
Archive registerPhotograph·1970s–80s
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An independent archive of contemporary art in Murmansk Oblast, launched by Olga within the Russian Art Archive Network. Beginning with the art scene in Apatity, it brings together testimonies, artworks, documents, and research spanning the mid-1970s through the 2000s.
Climate Microchanges · Natural History Museum, Oslo
Climate Microchanges · Natural History Museum, Oslo
Co-curated with Ekaterina Sharova at the Natural History Museum in Oslo. The exhibition Climate Microchanges brought artists, researchers, local voices, and Indigenous knowledge into a shared space for thinking about cultural and ecological change in the North.
Olga Shirokostup is an independent curator, researcher, and educator. Born in Severomorsk, she works across the European High North and is based in Lyon.
Olga studied history at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and graduated from the Chto Delat’ School of Engaged Art. Her work moves between long-term institutional collaborations and independent research.
She is currently a curator within the European research project ARCA (Biocultural Heritage in Arctic Cities as a Potential Resource for Climate Adaptation, 2024–2027). She was co-curator of Arctic Art Forum V at the Natural History Museum in Oslo in 2026 and has been part of the Women in the North project, curated by Maria Lind, since 2022.
Between 2021 and 2023, Olga served as Chief Curator of the Radiance Centre for Contemporary Art in Apatity. Since 2023, she has curated the Archive of Artistic Life in Zapolyarye within RAAN. From 2020 to 2024, she was a Research Course Leader at Garage Academy. She is a recipient of a Robert Bosch Stiftung grant and a former participant in the Frame Curatorial Exchange Programme.
Curator, ARCA European research project
Co-curator, Arctic Art Forum V, Oslo
OngoingArchive of Artistic Life in Zapolyarye, RAAN
