The ENCC is very happy to present its new Advisory Group, a team of seven experts active in the cultural sector who will provide support on content to the ENCC office on different strategic areas (such as EU advocacy/cultural policy, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, ethical digitalization, territorial development through culture) in order to further contribute to answering the needs and supporting the development of its members and the cultural sector.
This group is composed by both ENCC members (as to increase participation and connection with the reality of members) and topical and cultural policy experts who have been involved in the network and who provide external views and additional knowledge.
Meet the experts:
Lapo Bettarini
Born in Italy in Florence in 1976, Lapo Bettarini has always been divided between a strong scientific and intellectual curiosity and a very active social and cultural commitment especially in daily practice. As a scientist he traveled almost everywhere in the world (Europe, China, USA, ...) and he worked in dynamic and multicultural environments of very high level and won several awards and scholarships. In 2008, he finally decided to stop in Belgium and to immerse himself in its associative and socio-cultural world. After having created and managed two non-profit associations for several years, in 2016, he became the coordinator of a regional network of cultural centres in the proximity of Brussels, and in 2017, he became director of the Brussel regional network of cultural centres and several other associations working in different artistic, cultural and social domains.
Kay Sentance
Kay Sentance is a socially engaged artist based in Oxford, UK. She facilitates intersocial events in non-art spaces such as working launderettes, takeaway restaurants or horse box trailers. Recently this art practice has evolved to include creating homes and exploring the changes in rural and urban living.This is in contrast to her experience of working in/with arts institutions (Modern Art Oxford), artist-led Organisations (Ovada), Oxford University and others.Through these experiences she has become acutely aware of the importance of good governance and leadership in the cultural sector. This involves reviewing policies, good organisational practices as well as funding and, importantly, promoting diversity and establishing meaningful change that embraces all members in society through the arts.
Kay has been a ENCC member since 2016. Being based in the UK, she sees the ENCC as a vital link, a life line, to what is happening on the continent.
Dagna Gmitrowicz
Dagna Gmitrowicz is a senior trainer in the field of non formal education. She has been conducting international and national trainings, seminars, and facilitating conferences since 2001.
She is the creator of innovative educational tools like Colours of Feelings and Needs Deck, and long term curriculum empowering learners in defining and achieving their own goals. Dagna is a member of several international trainers' pools, among which trainers of Polish pool of trainers of European Solidarity Corps , TOSCA, and IT'S up to me training for trainers.
She is a member of the International Society for Self-Directed Learning and the founder of the ARTE EGO foundation. She contributes expertise on learning, inclusion and creativity.
As a certified art therapist, curator and professional painter, she empowers participatory art and is searching for beauty and balance through visual expression.
Dagna is a passionate supporter of the ENCC’s BECC programme.
Piet Forger
Piet Forger studied Law and Cultural Studies at the University of Leuven.
He has been the head of the Department for Culture at the city of Leuven, Belgium, since 2015. Before that, Piet was the director of several cultural centres and of the umbrella organisations of all cultural centres in the province of Flemish Brabant (Vlabra’ccent) and in Flanders (Fevecc/VVC). For more than 5 years he was the Deputy Director of CultuurNet Vlaanderen (now called ‘publiq’), an expertise centre at the Flemish level that focuses on cultural communication, participation and audience development.
Besides this, Piet was a member of the National Advisory Board Body for the Minister of Culture in Flanders for more than 10 years. For almost 15 years, he was also the president of the boards of fABULEUS, a high-level theatre and dance company working with and for young people, and Artforum, an art education organisation. He is currently a member of the board of several art organisations in the city of Leuven, such as Museum M, arts centre STUK, music centre Het Depot, independent arts centres OPEK.
He is the initiator and vice president of Vitamine C, a network in Flanders, Belgium, of people working in the cultural field who stand up for art and culture as vital vitamins for young people.
Piet has been connected to the ENCC since 1996 and has participated in many of its activities.
Raluca Iacob
Raluca Iacob is a cultural manager and a public policy specialist. She is the president of the MetruCub Association, in Bucharest, Romania.
Since 2007 she has been involved in advocacy for good governance, participative policy-making and cultural planning at local and national levels.
She has also researched about the misuse of European funds, the evolution of the independent cultural sector and local public administration’s competences in culture, and has developed communities of practice integrating the arts in education.
Raluca engages with the ENCC on the topic of local networks as a new form of the organisation of work in the cultural world; she is the author of our publications Local Networks (a guide to) Reimagining the Work of Organisations and of Looking Back, Looking Forwards: Local Networks Support the Transition Towards a New Public Culture.
Dagmar Bednáriková
Dagmar Bednáriková is the director of KD Mlejn cultural center, based in Prague. She also is the co-creator of cultural center Divadlo YARMAT.
She has been working in the cultural sector since 1992. She created and worked for a few independent theatre groups/associations in Czechia and Slovakia as a project manager, producer and fundraiser.
In 2006, she started working at the cultural center KD Mlejn.
She is also a researcher with a focus on cultural centres in 21st century. She has started her research in 2006 at the Academy of performing Arts in Prague and continued at Janacek Academy of performing arts in Brno.
Because she worked in different organizations on many levels of cultural production, she believes that she could provide different point of views. from academic thought to practical solutions.
