Interviews From Our Community

Sofia Collette Ehrich is an art historian, academic researcher, podcast host, and curator of multisensory experiences. She acquired her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and her master’s degree from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in Comparative Arts and Media Studies. She dedicated her master thesis research to multisensory approaches to virtual and augmented reality environments. From 2021 to 2023, she was a key researcher within Odeuropa, a European funded, Horizon 2020 project that advocated for scents as an important part of Europe’s cultural heritage. Within Odeuropa, she was the sensory events manager who led the production of five olfactory events as well as researched, documented, and outlined the best practices and challenges of using olfactory storytelling in GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives, museums). For this, she collaborated with various museums, perfumers, and researchers to orchestrate various olfactory projects and train various professionals in the use of olfactory storytelling. Finally, Ehrich led the development and production of the Olfactory Storytelling Toolkit: a ‘How-To’ Guide for Working with Smells in Museums and Heritage Institutions.