Olena Iliasova

Olena Iliasova is a museologist, researcher, curator of cultural and socio-cultural projects, member of ICOM Ukraine, and trainer in museum emergency preparedness. In 2024, she curated the educational course of the project Odesa Cultural Development Strategy 2025–2035, implemented with the support of EU4Culture. She was born on 5 January 1972 in Odesa. In 1997, she graduated from the Faculty of History at I. I. Mechnikov Odesa National University. Since 1989, she has worked at the Odesa Municipal Museum of Personal Collections named after O. V. Bleschunov. Since August 2022, she has served as acting director of the museum. Iliasova is the author of scholarly catalogues of collections of fans from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century and Western European porcelain from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is also the editor of a catalogue of icon painting from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. After the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, she remained in the country and continued museum work in Odesa. This experience became the basis for the documentary and artistic comic Odesa. Museum Diary of War (2022–2025), for which she created the concept, script, and texts. The illustrations were created by Maria Apriatova.

Selected publications and projects

Scholarly catalogue of collections of fans from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century

Scholarly catalogue of Western European porcelain from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Editor of a catalogue of icon painting from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century

Curator of the educational course of Odesa Cultural Development Strategy 2025–2035, supported by EU4Culture, 2024

Author of the concept, script, and texts of Odesa. Museum Diary of War / Marisel and Panna Kota Save Cultural Heritage and Themselves, 2022–2025