In Conversation: Irene Y. Panagopoulos, Katerina Hadji & Dr. Nayia Yiakoumaki

Irene Y. Panagopoulos is a collector and cultural advocate based in Greece. She was born in London and trained in fine arts before taking over as President of Magna Marine Inc., a dry bulk shipping company. She actively supports major art and cultural institutions, such as the British Museum and Tate. She is a member of the Delfina Foundation Global Council and a Trustee of the Dia Art Foundation, the National Gallery of Greece, and Northeastern University in Boston. She is also a Founding Member of the Board of Trustees of the Athens Biennale and a member of the Board of Advisors of Tavros Space, Athens. Furthermore, she has joined the Honorary Committee of We Dream Under The Same Sky, a philanthropic initiative supporting displaced populations through the arts. Over the years, she has contributed to numerous contemporary art initiatives, including exhibitions at the Museum of Cycladic Art, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (ΕΜΣΤ), the Greek Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Documenta. 

Katerina Hadji is a museologist, curator, and cultural producer. She studied Museum Cultures at Birkbeck College, University of London (2015), and Cultural Management, Communication, and Media at Panteion University, Athens (2023). Her curatorial practice foregrounds the creation of conceptual frameworks through which memory, history, and the public sphere are rearticulated. Recent curatorial projects include Fernweh, or Nostalgia for Unknown Lands at the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection Space in Athens (2025) and Ephemeral Party at Carco Parking in Athens (2025). Her professional trajectory encompasses collection and archive management, publishing, public programme development, and the production of cultural events. She has collaborated with public and private institutions in Greece and internationally, including the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the National Museum of Qatar, the Athens Biennale, the NEON Curatorial Exchange Program, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Kalfayan Galleries in Athens and Thessaloniki, and Vergos Auctions in Athens. Since 2023, she has served as Head of Collection of the Irene Υ. Panagopoulos Collection.

Dr. Nayia Yiakoumaki has been the Director of the Hellenic Centre in London since September 2022. From 2005 to 2022 she was a curator at Whitechapel Gallery, where from 2016 she also served as Head of Curatorial Studies and founding director of the MA Curating Art and Public Programmes in collaboration with London South Bank University. At the Whitechapel Gallery, she developed an innovative programme of research exhibitions for the Archive Gallery, worked on commissions, and from 2011 to 2020 led NEON Curatorial Exchange & Award, an annual international curatorial exchange programme, founded and funded by the NEON Organisation and delivered by the Whitechapel Gallery. She also co-directed the Athens Biennale organisation from 2016 to 2017. Yiakoumaki has worked in arts curation and education for over thirty years. She has conceived over forty exhibitions and commissions.