The combination of her well rounded academic background, professional experience, and worldly perspective, makes Mia Hanak a leader and pioneer in the art world, working in the museum industry for over fifteen years. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1996 with degrees in Art History and in Cultural Anthropology and from Tufts University in Medford, Mass. in 2001 with a degree in Museum Studies specializing in Museum Management and Exhibition Design.

 

Mia sparked her interest in museums, natural history, and environmental art through exhibitions and events she planned and executed while working at the UCSB Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Revolving Museum in Boston, and while planning world-class exhibitions at art galleries for high caliber wildlife artists such as Robert Bateman and Carl Brenders.  

 

It was when Hanak had started to travel the world that she fell in love with the variety and wonder of the natural world.  She has visited over forty countries and more museums that one could hope to see in a lifetime developing a deep knowledge of cultures, art and the environment.  She used her travel, her experience and her passion to cultivate the idea that is now, the Natural World Museum, which she co-founded in 2001 with benefactor Richard Smith.

 

In October 2004, the Natural World Museum (NWM) planned its first major exhibit, centered on the theme of five elements: space, earth, water, fire and air.  In June 2005, NWM produced the first of many UN World Enviornment Day exhibits. Ms. Hanak utlized this opportunity to build a lasting a relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and established NWM as the global partner for the arts for UNEP.

 

Transcending the traditional museum venue, the Natural World Museum is a mobile and global cultural institution that presents art through innovative programs to inspire and engage the public in environmental awareness and action.  NWM has already produced exhibits in partnership with UNEP in Algiers, Brussels, Oslo, Monaco, Wellington, Nairobi, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

 

For her work as the Founding Executive Director of the Natural World Museum, she has been nominated as the “Iconic Museum Leader of the Next Generation” by the American Association of Museums. NWM’s exhibitions feature artists from all over the world, who create work that inspire

and engage the public in environmental awareness and action.

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