Antonia Napp studied art history and Slavic and Greek studies at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau and Vienna. She completed her doctorate on Russian portrait painting and gender difference in the 18th century and has worked on this in various third-party funded scientific projects. From 2005, she has specialized in contemporary art in her museum work. In 2015, she took over as director of the Theaterfigurenmuseum in Lübeck, now KOLK 17 Figurentheater & Museum and was instantly captivated by the world of puppetry. Current themes of her work concern the redefinition of the museum as an institution and the decolonization of the collection.