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Joanna Pottle is the Community Engagement Manager for Humanity in Action (HIA Inc). She is a Senior Fellow of HIA’s Mapping Inequities Fellowship (2022-23), which she executed in tandem with a fellowship through the Kosciuszko Foundation in Poland, with affiliation at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Academy.
She is an American artist, educator, researcher, writer, and community gatherer based in Kraków, Poland. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, she is a U.S. Fulbright Program alumnae to Poland (2019-2020/21), cooperating with Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK) to execute a combination of artistic projects, academic research and curatorial work, and educational programming.
Joanna earned a BFA in Studio Art, BA in Art History with an Art Education Track at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and more recently earned an MA in European Studies Programme, Central and Eastern European Studies: Research Track at the Jagiellonian University. Her professional work and expertise spans the interdisciplinary intersection of disciplines including fine arts, education, academia, community building and activism initiatives with focuses on cross-cultural educational exchange and dialogue, visual arts, museum studies, cultural and dissonant heritage, democracy and pluralism, collective memory and identity, and public space.
Joanna has led and participated in numerous grant projects, residencies, workshops, and exhibitions internationally including a US Embassy in Poland grant (remote 2020-2021) to virtually connect those in the cultural sector based in the US and Poland during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, the International Mark Rothko Painting Symposium (Daugvapils, Latvia 2021), The Old School Residency (Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria 2022) and CEC Artslink Art Prospect Network Residency with Ukrainian organization for interdisciplinary practice Open Place (Białystok, Poland 2023), and La Casa Movil Art Residency (Angodonales, Cadiz, Spain 2024). She also co-led a US Department of State Alumni Exchange grant project under the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund 2023 (CDAF) with fellow Fulbright Poland alumna Frankee Lyons in Poland to provide integration support through art and discussion-based workshops for migrants and non-migrants in Kraków and Warsaw from June-November 2023.
Outside work, Joanna loves cycling, language learning, traveling, and is involved in various support systems and local efforts for the growing Ukrainian community in Poland. Learn more at her website joannapottle.com
Updated January 2025