Speakers, Moderators
and Panellists
Agata Etmanowicz (Poland) | Vice-President, Impact Foundation
www.art-impact.pl/17_english
Agata has worked in the Polish Ministry of Culture, coordinated the Culture Contact Point (CCP) responsible for running the European Community Programme Culture 2000 in Poland and Programme Culture 2007-2013, been a negotiator in the Council of the European Union - Cultural Affairs Committee and in the Audiovisual Working Group, been a member of the Management Committees of Culture 2000 and Culture (2007-2013), coordinated and was on the Programme and Management Committee of the European programme in the field of civil society “Europe for Citizens” and been an expert in many other initiatives.
From 2009 she’s a vice president of Impact Foundation based in Warsaw. She’s also a co-establisher of Poland Without Barriers Foundation working towards elimination of both architectural and mental barriers, enabling people with disabilities normal functioning in society.
Recently Agata was named one of 25 young Polish leaders as part of the project 25/25 (25 young leaders of change for the next 25 years of Poland) organised by “Teraz Polska” Foundation and supported by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
Aká Hansen (Greenland) | Director, Nuuk Nordic Culture Festival 2019
Aka Hansen is the coordinator for one of Greenland's biggest cultural festivals, Nuuk Nordic Culture festival 2019. Aka Hansen has many years of experience as a filmmaker, mostly as a producer. She's the first Greenlandic filmproducer who has a filmeducation, as she finishes her studies at the filmschool Super16 in Copenhagen in November 2018. Among the most well-known projects of hers is the short experimental film Half&half and the short documentary STG, that was awarded Best documentary at Ekko Shortlist Awards '17.
Andrew Doe (UK) | Founder, Proper Discord / NBFP Web Platform
Andy Doe is one of the pioneers of the digital music revolution. He was head of classical at iTunes as it grew from a small experiment into the world's largest music retailer, and as COO at Naxos he oversaw the company's expansion into apps, digital books and ringtones, as well as adding major label content to the company's streaming services.
These days Andy consults on music, media and technology to an extremely diverse client list including artists at all stages of their careers, as well as startups, nonprofits and multibillion-dollar corporations. He manages large-scale recording and technology projects, helps artists and ensembles decide how to publish their recordings, develop creative ways to use media in marketing, and help organisations to set up and run labels. Past and present clients include: Berliner Philharmoniker, Gustavo Dudamel, Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, The New Yorker and many others.
Bartek Stolarek (Poland) | Booking & Production Manager - POLandRock Festival, formerly Woodstock Festival Poland & The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation
https://en.polandrockfestival.pl/
Social activist, live music fan, and co-creator of the biggest open-air festival in Europe. Since 2011 booking manager for Pol’and’Rock Festival (formerly Woodstock Festival Poland), responsible for creating the line-up for two major stages of the massive open-air festival. Stolarek can be credited with
bringing acts such as Amon Amarth, Judas Priest, or Archive to perform at the Polish festival. Bartłomiej Stolarek co-creates the line-up alongside the festival’s promoter, Jurek Owsiak. His responsibilities include overseeing the entire musical production of the festival as well as concerts taking place during the Grand Finale fundraiser. Stolarek is also a production manager of the largest emerging talent competition, which takes place in clubs across the country and is meant to showcase up-and-coming musicians and he acts as executive producer of CD/DVD and vinyl recordings of live concerts recorded during the festival.
Passionate about football and an avid footballer himself, Stolarek never stops searching for new sounds and artists to present at Pol’and’Rock Festival.
Bradley Allen (Denmark) | Administrative manager of Tivoli Theatres, former head of culture at the Creative Europe Desk Denmark and manager of Hotel Pro Forma
www.tivoli.dk/en/
Bradley Allen has been the administrative manager of Tivoli Theatres since December 2017, responsible for running Tivoli’s two theatres of 1.600 and 1.000 seats. His job consists primarily of producing Tivoli’s guest performances and co-productions as well as optimizing the “guest experience” and ticket sales. Tivoli’s theatre programming ranges from modern ballet and dance, to a classical music summer programme, to commercial musicals, selling a total of over 300.000 tickets annually.
Prior to this, he was the head of culture for Creative Europe Desk Denmark, where he worked hard to increase the international networks of Danish participants. As the producer and manager of Hotel Pro Forma for 10 years, he brought new models of co-production and co-financing into the Danish performing arts.
Originally from Canada and now Danish citizen, he has a Master’s degree in International Marketing from the University of Southern Denmark and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Victoria. He is on the board of several Danish production companies, works as a cultural consultant and has taught at the Danish National School of Performing Arts. His specialties include international financing, co-producing and fundraising and strategy development for both larger and smaller cultural institutions.
Efva Lilja (Sweden/Denmark) | Artist, Professor, Director of Dansehallerne
www.dansehallerne.dk/en/
Efva Lilja is a Swedish artist, working with choreography, visual art, films and writings that takes us through layers of conscience, into passionate erotic episodes, contemplative stillness or maybe just playfulness with a political edge. Her work has been presented in more than 35 countries, often described as controversial and innovatory. Some of the most celebrated works was produced for art institutions such as Centre Georges Pompidou, Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. An odder example would be an expedition to the North Pole where she explored her abilities to dance under extreme circumstances. From 1985 to 2005 she was Artistic Director of the E.L.D (Stockholm).
Author of 11books, lecturer and a forerunner within artistic research, member of various international bodies. She has been decorated and received a number of prizes and awards. 2003 appointed Professor of Choreography, 2006-2013 the Vice-Chancellor at DOCH, the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm. 2014 the Expert Advisor on Artistic Research at the Ministry of Education and Research in Sweden. From 2016 Artistic Director of Dansehallerne in Copenhagen.
Gian Maria Greco (Spain) | Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Autonomous University of Barcelona
http://pagines.uab.cat/umaq/gian-maria-greco
Gian Maria Greco is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in Accessibility at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), where he directs the project UMAQ. His research focuses on both the theoretical foundation of accessibility studies and accessibility of media and live events.
He holds a MA and a PhD in Philosophy, an International MA in Accessibility to Media, Arts and Culture, a PGD in Disability Rights. He has held various university positions and directed many national and international projects. He has co-authored two books (in Italian): “Making as Healing Care. On the Constructionist Foundations of Occupational Therapy” (2013) and “Accessibility, Health and Safety of Live Events and Venues” (2015).
In 2013-2014, he served as accessibility coordinator for the Candidacy of Lecce as European Capital of Culture 2019. Over the years, he has been working as accessibility consultant on live events, cultural heritage, and tourism. In 2015-2018, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the European project "Accessible Culture and Training", on the definition of a European profile and training for the accessibility manager of live events.
Since 2011 he directs SoundMakers, a multidisciplinary festival focused on accessibility and social inclusion. Since 2015 he is Accessibility Coordinator of the ECS "Porta d'Oriente" (Italy), one of the most massive projects of accessible cultural tourism in Europe, serving an area of 420 km2, co-designed with and for persons with disabilities, children, migrants, families, the elderly, and foreign speakers.
Pascal Keiser (France) | Board member, Vertigo Starts
https://vertigo.starts.eu/
Pascal Keiser develops and leads crossover projects between culture, society and economy. As a theater, festival director and founder, he initiated a cross-border institute for culture and technology in Mons (Belgium)-Maubeuge (France) from 2004 to 2012 training 400 professionals per year and hosting 20 companies a year.
He co-directed the VIA international festival for the Belgian side jointly with Didier Fusillier - director of Lille 2004, he founded and is President of La Manufacture Collectif Contemporain, the main venue for contemporary proposals in the Avignon Off Festival, developing an inclusive and open governance project with difficult districts in the west outskirts of Avignon (32.000 spectators in 3 weeks, 10.000 professional tickets).
He is artistic curator for major cultural projects, he defended successfully in front of the European Commision jury the project Mons 2015 European Capital of Culture, the first European Capital of Culture project to take the baseline « Where Technology meets culture ». he lead the artistic direction of the digital program including cutting-edge participatory digital projects like Street Review (fake street view of the city with participation of 900 inhabitants) or Café Europa (network of 12 European venues with large screen video connection).
In 2017, he curated and designed with his team the project of Digital Museum for La Villette with 8 French National museums (Le Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Versailles, …) dedicated to bring national masterpieces of French national museums in difficult suburbs north of Paris with digital tools.
Tile von Damm | Board member, Orfeo & Majnun and Centriphery
www.orfeoandmajnun.eu/orfeo-and-majnun/
Tile von Damm is the director of Perspectives on Global Policies (PerGlobal) and the European project manager and member of the artistic board of the Creative Europe-funded projects „Orfeo&Majnun“ and „Centriphery“. He is affiliated researcher at the TU-Berlin, Chair for Sustainable Planning and Urban Design. He studied political sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Philipps University Marburg.
His work and research focuses on inclusive rural and urban development with a strong link to participatory governance questions, open source and open data methods, transnational practice and the transfer of knowledge and ideas. Most projects he is involved are interfacing cultural and urban/social methods.
Tile von Damm has a wide range of experiences in international and global negotiations and research projects, research transfer and management and implementation of projects. He is part of the German Smart City Delegation with DIN/ISO and Appointed Member of the Scientific Group on Artificial Intelligence at The Federation of German Scientists (VDW e.V.). In 2018 he won the first price for an idea on inclusive rural health care of the Gesundheitskogngress. He was official NGO-Participant at the UN Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Summit on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, and the PrepComs to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in New York, USA.
His recent projects are focussing on inclusive and participatory cultural and social development:
• „Centriphery“ is a European participation project including nine different regions towards regional narratives and myths and the common European values.
“Orfeo&Majnun” is a European capacity building project towards cultural and social inclusion and accessibility by developing an participatory opera and parcours in seven European cities.
• “Nextbengaluru Gatishil” is a cooperative urban neighborhood project in Shantinagar,
providing a wide range of urban interventions and open spaces towards an inclusive urban development.
• “Inclusive City Development in India” is an project focussing on the recent challenges of rapid urban development in India. It questions the recent smart city discourse and identifies
alternative aproaches.
• “The digital Citizen and his Identity”, Co-Principal Investigator with the DFG Research Group on privacy, data protection and digital identity.
• “Towards inclusive cities: governance, privacy, and informality”. Co-Principal investigator in the research project with Fields of View Bengaluru and TU Delft.
From 2010 to 2017 he was co-founder and director of the Indo-German urban research institute MOD (www.mod.org.in). From 2008 to 2010 he was research manager at Centre for Literature- and Cultural Sciences, Berlin. He was strategic coordinator of the excellence initiative at Humboldt- Universit.t Berlin and researcher at the Department of Social Sciences bfrom 2005-2008. 2000- 2001 he was researcher at University of the District of Columbia (UDC) Washington DC; and Project Coordinator at Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Vigdís Jakobsdóttir (Iceland) | Artistic Director and CEO of Reykjavik Arts Festival
www.artfest.is/
Vigdis is an experienced theatre director and workshop facilitator, both in her home country Iceland, and globally. She has directed performances at the National Theatre of Iceland and with numerous independent theatre companies. She was Head of Education at the National Theatre of Iceland from 2002-2011 and adjunct and later programme director for MA studies in Theatre Education at the Iceland Academy of the Arts from 2002-2016. She is the founder of Þjóðleikur – The National Youth Theatre festival in Iceland which she led from 2008-2017.
Vigdis was elected on the executive committee of ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) in 2011 and was vice president of the association from 2014-2017. She was chairperson of ASSITEJ Iceland for many years and artistic director of UNGI festival in Reykjavík from 2013-2016.
She holds a BA honours degree in Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of Kent (UK) and a Post.grad. diploma in Teaching Studies for Higher Education from the University of Iceland.
Zuzana Ernst-Moncayo (Austria) | Associate Art Director, ArtSocialSpace Brunnenpassage
http://www.brunnenpassage.at/home/english/
Zuzana is a scenographer and theatre-maker, founding member of the non-profit performance company tangent.COLLABORATIONS as well as Tanz durch den Tag, a collective reclaiming public space in Vienna through open-air interventions. She is currently the Art Director (Ass.) of Brunnenpassage ArtSocialSpace, a decentralized art institution in Vienna, which operates as a venue and laboratory for transcultural and participatory art.
Zuzana is involved in academia as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the department of arts education, connecting theory and practice. Drawing from scenography, performance, art and community-based participation, she aims to create spaces for encounter and socio-political dialogue. Central to her work are questions and counterproposals relating to everyday myths and cultural constructs of collective identity.
She received her MFA in scenography from the Academy of Fine Arts, studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and her BA in lighting design and theatre science at Indiana University, Bloominton USA.