Staff
Gwen Strauss
Since the founding of the Dora Maar House residency program in 2007, Gwen Strauss has been the primary person working on-site, first as the assistant director and then as the director. Before coming to work at the Dora Maar House, Strauss was the director of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s campus in Lacoste. She is also a working writer. Her books include: The Hiding Game, a Middle Grade Reader about artists hiding in Marseille with the help of Varian Fry in 1940; Trail of Stones, a book of poetry; The Night Shimmy, a children’s book; and Ruth and the Green Book, which received wide recognition including the ALA 2011 Most Notable Middle Grade Reader and Honor book for the Jane Adam’s Peace Prize. She is the author of The Nine (2021), and her most recent work is Milena And Margarete (2025).
Frauke V. Josenhans
Frauke V. Josenhans is the deputy director and chief curator of the DMCC. In this newly created position, Josenhans will help to strengthen and develop the mission of the DMCC which hosts the renowned residency program and other dynamic cultural offerings throughout the year. Frauke V. Josenhans is an international art historian and curator whose career spans France and the United States. She has held various positions in academia and museums, notably at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Yale University Art Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and at the Université François-Rabelais in Tours, France. She authored various books and articles especially on the topic of exile, migration, and female artists in modern and contemporary art. She holds a PhD from the Aix-Marseille Université, France.
Laurence Varenik
Laurence Varenik is the “governess” of the Dora Maar House and Hotel de Tingry. She grew up in the mountains of the Alps, but twenty years ago she was drawn to the sunny south. At that time, Laurence began to develop her business as governess at various other homes. She passed the baton of her business to a young entrepreneur and joined the DMCC team in 2020 alongside Gwen. Apart from that, Laurence always finds something to keep herself busy, between sewing, bike rides, her vegetable garden and her beloved chickens.
CAMILLE BERGAGNINI
Camille Bergagnini is from the southwest of France. She studied in Bordeaux, where she obtained a Master’s degree in Cultural Management in 2023. After completing an internship at the Dora Maar Cultural Center in 2022, she gained various professional experiences, notably at the Villa Albertine in New York in the Artistic Exchanges department and at the Villa Gillet in Lyon, where she was in charge of EAC (Artistic and Cultural Education) projects in literature. She fell in love with Provence and has been working as Communications & Operations Coordinator at the DMCC since October 2024. She is responsible for the gallery-boutique La Mob, communications, and internship management.
ophélie Brisset
Originally from Anjou, Ophélie Brisset is the residency program manager. She plunged into the world of art and culture to find what connects our humanities. A graduate of the University of Lyon’s Faculty of Anthropology and Sociology with a degree in Arts and Culture, she came to Provence after gaining experience working with various associations, cultural companies, and institutions. The CDCN d’Avignon Les Hivernales created a position for her. She then worked at the Scène nationale La Garance in Cavaillon. In these structures, she developed many projects with artists, from the theatre to hospitals, public places, apartments, or prisons. She also specialized in making performances accessible to people with visual or hearing impairments. She is also the author and illustrator of graphic novels: Les rebonds (about dance in schools) and Constellation (about the popular choir of the Opéra Grand Avignon). She continues to explore poetry through photographic collage, writing, and memory gathering.