Members
Daniel Antal, CFA (The Netherlands) is an expert on valuing intangible assets and measuring cultural access, participation, and music and film production, and assessing learning needs and granting needs. He holds a quantitative degree in economics, in competition policy, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder, a research fellow at the Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia, the author of several open-sourced, open data and economic impact assessment software. He is a co-founder of Reprex, a reproducible research company that builds automated data observatories in the cultural and creative sectors, and in sustainability. He has written several reports and articles about quantitative assessment of creative industry taxation, copyright or competition policy issues, and works on making national and EU level reporting to be automatic. Reprex built an open source, open data demo version of the European Music Observatory. reprex.nl/authors/daniel_antalJuan Carlos Belloso (Spain) is an international expert in the development and promotion of places and organisations. He has been an advisor to the City Council of Barcelona and other city organisations and institutions and has also provided advisory and consulting services to many cities, regions, countries and destinations as well as other organisations worldwide. His main area of specialisation is branding, marketing and promotion of places and destinations where culture and creativity in all of its forms and manifestations play a fundamental role. Juan Carlos is member of the advisory board of the Global Cultural Districts Network and the Poblenou Urban District in Barcelona, the emerging creative and cultural district in the city.
Blerina Berberi (Albania) is a co-founder of Ekphrasis Studio, NGO in arts management and creative industries, which was granted the first UNESCO International Fund for Culture Diversity for the country to develop public arts policies through a bottom up approach. She has work experience from The Netherlands, Albania and Canada and been involved in policy development with UNESCO and public institutions. Blerina is also a national expert author for Compendium Cultural Policies and Trends. www.ekphrasisstudio.com
Steven Hadley (UK) is an academic, consultant and researcher working internationally in arts management, cultural policy and audience engagement. He lectures at Queen’s University Belfast and also holds posts at the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds. He is an Associate Consultant with The Audience Agency, and sits on the Editorial Boards of both Cultural Trends and ENCATC Journal of Cultural Management and Policy. His forthcoming book, ‘Audience Development and Cultural Policy’ will be published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2019.
Joost Heinsius (Netherlands) is an independent expert and the owner of Values of Culture&Creativity. He loves working on the interface of strategy, social impact, financing and policy-making within the cultural and creative sector. He is involved in research (f.e. Crowdfunding4Culture, for the European Commission, on Creative Hubs and arts education policy, for ELIA, the European federation of art schools), in consulting (vision and strategy for cooperation between performing arts institutions) and in policy making (new financial instruments). And he loves writing it all up.
Peter Inkei (Hungary) is the Director of the Budapest Observatory: Regional Observatory on Culture in East-Central Europe. He has done consultancy in various fields of cultural policy, among others for the Council of Europe and the European Commission, is author of the Hungarian entry of the Compendium of cultural policies, and has been a speaker at various international conferences. Previously, he held various positions in the civil service, including deputy state secretary for culture. www.budobs.org
David Parrish (UK) has a background in setting up and managing enterprises in the cultural sector. He works worldwide as an enterprise adviser, speaker, trainer and writer, specialising in helping cultural organisations and creative enterprises to become even more successful. David has more than 30 years experience in the cultural sector, complemented by academic and professional accreditations. He is the author of the business guide for cultural and creative entrepreneurs: 'T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity’.
www.davidparrish.com
Andrea Pugliese (Italy) is co-founder of Impact Hub Roma, co-working space and business accelerator targeted to social innovation and cultural and creative industries. He is strategic advisor for Innovation in Federculture, the Italian Association of CCIs. With over 20 years of experience, he supports public authorities in: employment and skills services and local development issues; EU Structural Funds programming, project design and evaluation. As independent consultant, he is also focused on experience design for museums, digital storytelling, audience development and business models. He published several novels and essays.
Tony Ramos Murphy (Spain) is an expert in Cultural Policy and Cultural Strategic Planning with more than 20 years of professional experience in the cultural and creative field. Based in the Canary Islands (Spain), he has been a consultant for a variety of cultural organisations and public institutions. He has led a range of research and strategy programmes on behalf of regional development agencies and high profile national bodies, as well as undertaken significant international work. Tony holds a PhD in Sociology of Culture. He is a member of Econcult-Research Unit in Economics of Culture of the University of Valencia and CEO of Culturalink Consultoría en Cultura. www.culturalink.net
Paul Stepan (Austria) is a founding member and since 2007 head of the Institute for Cultural and Media Economics. Since 1997 he works as a consultant for policy making bodies, evaluates funding programmes, creates funding schemes to implement political strategies efficiently and writes surveys on creative industries and cultural sectors. He taught at the Erasmus Universities Rotterdam (NL) and the University Salzburg (AT) and currently at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (AT) and the Palacký University Olomouc (CZ) where he is also part of a research team that builds up a PhD programme for digitalisation in the screen industries. www.fokus.or.at
Yvette Vaughan Jones (UK) is a Chief Executive of Visiting Arts. Yvette has worked in policy roles and developing and running international creative programmes internationally. She has experience in both in the private and public sectors as well as for independent arts organisations. She set up Wales Arts International in 1996 and wrote the Sector Study for the Arts and Cultural Industries for the EU programmes. She worked in Brussels as Policy Manager and was the author of Cardiff bid for European Capital of Culture 2008. Her recent work in Europe has included chairing the OMC groups on Artists Residencies in 2014 and Impact of the digital shift on audience development across Europe in 2017.
Antonios Vlassis (Belgium) develops an innovative expertise linked to cultural policies and international/regional cultural cooperation. In this respect, his expertise engages with the following areas: international institutions in the global cultural governance, EU cultural policies, normative conflicts (trade/culture, development/culture, digital technologies/culture) in global governance, rising powers in international cultural cooperation, trade agreements and audiovisual policies. He received a PhD in International Relations from SciencesPo Bordeaux and he teaches International Cultural Policy at Liege University.
Tim Williams (UK) has cultural policy development experience at the UK, international and multi-lateral level. He was Deputy-Chair and Chair of the UK National Commission for UNESCO for nine years. With 18 years experience of BBC World Service journalism and drama production, Tim now runs a consultancy that specialises in communications for development. The consultancy specialises in project evaluation and fundraising management. He was the Team Leader of the EU-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme in 2015-2018. www.projects-direct.net
Zora Jaurova (Slovakia) works as film producer, cultural and creative industries policy expert. Apart from 20 years of experiences with policy making and advisory on national and European level, she was also the co-author and director of Kosice – European Capital of Culture 2013 project, vice-president of European advocacy platform Culture Action Europe and Board Member of Slovak Arts Council. She is the President of Slovak Creative Industry Forum, and member of prestigious Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE producers).
Zviad Mchedlishvili (Georgia) is a co-founder and executive director of Creative Solution, the organisation for developing creative industries and the founder of Creative Way Hub – creative centre in Tbilisi. He has developed a number of international cooperation initiatives in research, training and cultural policy development. With more than 25 years of experience in the cultural and creative industries, he worked 10 years as a head of international relations, PR and regional policy department for the ministry of culture of Georgia.
Nikky Smedley (UK) has a background in dance, theatre, TV, film and music. With her company changing cultures she has worked as a consultant for some of the leading arts and cultural organisations in Britain. Her specialism is meaningful communication with, for and by young people, and she writes and performs stories for children. She heads up the How to Speak Child initiative, works as an educational journalist, advisor and lecturer and her first book: Create, Perform, Teach! was published in 2018. HowtoSpeakChild.com
Mary McAuliffe (Ireland) specialises in Arts Policy and Cultural Planning. For twenty-five years she has led and implemented ambitious action research that informed local/regional, national and European policy making in the arts and creative industries. Her work is marked by a strategic and innovative approach to the integration of culture in mainstream policy making that links the arts, to education, to health, to tourism and to environmental policies. At its heart is collaboration, between local and central government, between culture and industry, between artists and policy makers – to facilitate a creative ecosystem that is aligned with the talents, resources and attributes of an area.
Audronis Imbrasas (Lithuania) has a background in managing projects within dance, circus or performing arts sectors – major national festivals, venue for performing arts, etc. He has an experience from cultural sector as well as policy making, working as a Vice-Minister of Culture of Lithuania. For over 20 years, Audronis was a director of Lithuanian Dance Information Centre. Since 2018, he is an expert at the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Jorge Barreto Xavier (Portugal) is a professor at the Lisbon University Institute where he teaches public policies of culture, management of creative industries and directs the Culture, Development and Society Program. With extensive work and publications at the local, national and international level - in the design and implementation of cultural policies - Jorge was Deputy Mayor for Culture, Director General of the Arts, Secretary of State for Culture to the Prime Minister, and Member of the European Council of Ministers of Culture. He led cultural organisations at national and international level, art biennales and research programs on artistic experimentation and new technologies.
Monika Klein (Poland) is a political scientist and economist with work experience in both science and industry. Her expertise includes business models for cultural and creative industries, innovation and entrepreneurial perspectives of regional development and management processes in creative companies. She is the head of the Szczecin Incubator of Art and Creative Industries, helping to boost cultural prosperity and diversity for more than 10 years. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Szczecin and lectures at the Academy of Art in Szczecin.
Levan Kharatishvili (Georgia) is a founder and CEO of Creative Strategies Lab based in Georgia. Previously, Levan has worked at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia in 2013-2021 as a Deputy Minister, where he was responsible for Culture and Creative Industries, Strategy Development and International Relations. He led the process of elaboration and adoption of the first culture strategy document – Culture Strategy 2025, as well as the first National Strategy and Roadmap for creative industries in Georgia. Levan has been elected as a Chair of the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape of the Council of Europe as well as Vice-Chair of the Governing Board at the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. Levan was the board member of Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends. Levan is the co-author of Manifesto on Freedom of Expression of Arts and Culture in Digital Era as well as the concept for a digital @exhibition ‘Free to Create, Create to be Free’ launched by the Council of Europe.
Jahangir Selimkhanov (Azerbaijan) is initiator, curator, facilitator, promoter of numerous successful projects in various artistic disciplines and areas of cultural domain. Currently, he serves as external expert of Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture on strategic development in the arts. He has been a lecturer, panelist, speaker, presenter at the conferences, symposia, festivals and other cultural events around the world. For nearly 30 years, Jahangir lead various university courses (from contemporary music to cultural policy to creativity process) and mentoring programs. Recently, he has been elected to Administrative Council of UNESCO International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.