Ioana Călinescu is a journalist based in Bucharest, Romania. She was nominated for the European Press Prize 2024 in the Migration Journalism category, for Pride and Concrete. Ten Years Later - a long-term journalistic research project, which aims to document every 10 years the changes of the traditional Romanian village following the massive migration to work abroad. She celebrates each decade of documentation with a printed book.

She is also a cultural communication manager and she has been experimenting, for several years now, with a mix of social and cultural project communication. She has a diploma in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Bucharest.

From 2018 to 2024 she was in charge of PR and communication at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest.

For more than 15 years she has been a journalist by conviction and, more recently, co-founder of extensive independent cultural projects with social impact.

2021 - Museum of Abandonment (MA)
2016 - Centre for Documentary Photography (CdFD)

The Museum of Abandonment is a digital and participatory forum-museum aiming to map out a culture of abandonment and offer a historical narrative of the abandonment and institutionalization of children in Romania.

In 2024, MA was nominated at the Museums and Heritage + Awards for BEST USE OF DIGITAL, along with the best five museums in the world in this category. 

CdFD produces in-depth visual investigations of local topics in Romania and beyond by mixing various media such as traditional documentary photography, sounds, video and various visuals. Our work involves interdisciplinary teams which makes us operate at the crossroads of journalism and art.