Tonia Papapetrou

Tonia Papapetrou was born in Nicosia in 1987. She started art classes from a young age and in 2006 she was accepted in Athens School of Fine Arts where she completed her undergrad in Sculpture. In 2011 she moved to Scotland for her postgraduate studies in Edinburgh College of Art, with scholarships from the A.G. Leventis Foundation and from the Panayotis & Effie Michelis Foundation. She was one of the first artists to be invited to the Glo'Art artists residency in Belgium and to the London Royal School of Art exchange program in collaboration with Edinburgh College of Art. Tonia has taken part in group exhibitions in Greece, Cyprus, England, Belgium and Scotland and has remained an active member in the Cypriot art scene. She collaborated in a project at the BoCCF in the immersive musical theatre performance "Reclaiming the Roof", in which she edited and constructed the set design and in 2019, sponsored by Kentriki Insurance and following examples from other countries on social art platforms, she has created an equivalent social art project in Cyprus by making the Smiling Donkey -a caricature donkey sculpture- which has been reproduced, in order for the public to paint the donkeys and for them to be exhibited in different locations in Cyprus. In the last year, Tonia is working with the Nicosia City Hall for the creation of a public sculpture and has completed her pedagogics training for prospective art teachers.