Paola Cordera

About

Paola Cordera works as an associate professor at the Politecnico di Milano. Drawing on a multidisciplinary foundation, shaped by projects in arts, museums, and cultural heritage, her work has been strenghtened by international grants and fellowships in EU and the US enabling me to develop transdisciplinary research topics and build a global professional network. Collaborations with universities, research institutes, and museums have resulted in projects, conferences, and publications. Such experiences have fostered a dynamic approach to analyzing complex narratives and uncovering the interconnected meanings of cultural artifacts and heritage sites. Her approach emphasizes primary source research and focuses on three key areas: craft and decorative art collections, their displays (both permanent and ephemeral), and their cultural contexts. Spanning Medieval and Renaissance art, architecture, and decorative arts, as well as their reception in the 19th and 20th centuries, her studies explore themes like (re)production, industrialization, the history of taste, the art market, and exhibition strategies through a transdisciplinary lens, broadening the scope of art historical research. Grounded in unexplored archival sources and case studies—such as 19th century art dealer F. Spitzer, Art Nouveau cabinet-maker E. Quarti, and the "Italy at Work" exhibition in the US—it situates these examples within their artistic and historical contexts, uncovering their cultural and aesthetic impact. This crossdisciplinary method bridges art history with economic, architectural, and historical studies, offering new insights into exhibitions, collections, and taste. In recent years, her work has examined how "Italianness" was exhibited across Italy, France, and the United States from the 19th to the 20th century. Within this context, she led the "VO Project: Voices of Objects. The Italian Design from Museum to Home (2021)" focusing on the traveling exhibition Italy at Work (1950–54). This project investigated the actors, networks, and strategies promoting Italian industry and decorative arts in the context of postwar Marshall Plan funding. As Principal Investigator, she coordinated two international conferences, and oversaw dissemination activities though social media and webinars, broadening public engagement and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

Education