Martha Cerny & Natascha Cerny Ehtesham

Martha Cerny

Martha Cerny is a Canadian-Swiss curator, co-founder, and director of the Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art (MCCA) in Bern, Switzerland. Holding an MAS from Zurich University of the Arts, she has dedicated her career to amplifying Indigenous voices from the Arctic, providing a platform for artists and communities from the circumpolar regions.

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Since 1995, she has worked extensively with Inuit art, expanding her focus to other Arctic cultures in 1998. Over the past 15 years, her work has centered on addressing the complex cultural and environmental challenges faced by circumpolar communities—from the legacies of colonialism to the impacts of climate change.

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Through national and international exhibitions, events, and dialogues, she fosters understanding, knowledge exchange, and global awareness of Arctic issues, bridging the gap between the high North and the global public.

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Natascha Cerny Ehtesham

Natascha Cerny Ehtesham has a background in civilian peacebuilding and human rights, with over a decade of experience in these fields. She currently works as the Assistant Director at the Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art in Bern, where she focuses on promoting Arctic Indigenous voices and implementing decolonization initiatives.

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Natascha has worked with organizations such as swisspeace, humanrights.ch as well as Library and Archives Canada, where she led projects aimed at preventing violent conflict and addressing its aftermath through collaborating with civil society organizations, human rights defenders, memory institutions, as well as multilateral organizations and governments, predominantly in Europe and the post-Soviet space. Natascha is committed to fostering dialogue and mutual understanding, drawing on lessons from the past to help build a better future.

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