Örer came aboard on the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in 2003 and worked in the coordination of cultural and artistic projects until she was appointed director to the Istanbul Biennial in 2008. Since 2009, she has been the advisor of the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. She has acted as a consultant and a jury member for a number of international cultural and artistic projects as well as an independent expert in the European Union’s department that evaluates cultural funds. She was also a member of the project Capacity Building for Cultural Policy in Turkey and a member of the team that wrote the alternative Cultural Policy Compendium of Turkey.
Bige Örer’s breadth of activity embraces both the artistic and the academic fields. In 2017, she curated the group exhibition Flâneuses, an exhibition which explores flânerie from different perspectives and celebrates its potential for creative thought and for reimagining the world. In 2016, she initiated and developed an exhibition of Cansu Çakar, Linear Transcendency at Darat al Funun, Amman. In 2015, she produced an independent exhibition titled Self-Help with İnci Furni and Leyla Gediz at Elhamra Han, Beyoğlu. Together with Fulya Erdemci, she was the co-curator of the ‘Agoraphobia’ exhibition in Berlin, which was a prologue to the 13th Istanbul Biennial.
Her contribution in various publications includes the research she co-conducted on the financing of international contemporary art biennials. She was the co-author of the children’s book A Colourful Journey In A Time Machine: Istanbul Biennials for Children with Süreyyya Evren. She has also been teaching, between 2011 and 2013, courses on the subject of managing biennials and international exhibitions at the Istanbul Bilgi University. Since March 2013, she is the vice-president of the International Biennial Association.