About the panellists (presentation of networks and CVs)
Culture Action Europe – EFAH, Daphne Tepper
Trans Europe Halles (TEH), Pål Steigan
Balkan Dance Network, Dragana Alfirević
inSEEcp, Vesna Milosavljević
COMMUNIA, Juan Carlos De Martin
Culture Action Europe – European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH)
Culture Action Europe – the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage is an advocacy platform representing the interests of thousands of artists and cultural organisations across Europe and beyond. With so many voices fighting to be heard, it is essential that the not-for-profit cultural sector also make its case heard for European cultural policy and funding.
Culture Action Europe brings together members from the fields of theatre, dance, music, visual arts, socio-cultural work, arts management, cultural training and information provision, etc. in the belief that cultural cooperation matters in Europe. Membership is open to any cultural organisation (at local, regional, national or European level), which wants to find out what is happening to culture in Europe and get involved in European cultural affairs.
Culture Action Europe exists to strengthen the role of arts and culture in the sustainable development of Europe. It does so by influencing EU institutions for the benefit of the arts and the cultural sector, by acting as a platform for culture and actively representing member interests at the European level, by raising awareness among European policy makers as to the value of the arts and culture.
Address: 10 rue de la Science, B- 1000 Brussels, Belgium
W: www.efah.org, E: efah@efah.org
DAPHNE TEPPER
Policy Analyst - Acting Secretary-General
E: daphne.tepper@efah.org
After graduating in Political Science and Public International Law, Daphne Tepper conducted a research for the UNESCO Chair for Peace Culture and Human Rights (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain) on the use of artistic projects in post-conflict reconciliation processes. She started her professional career in a European Youth NGO and then worked in the development field, first as project manager in a private consultancy and then for more than two years in the European Commission (EuropeAid Cooperation Office and DG RELEX). She is now working for Culture Action Europe – the European Forum for Arts and Heritage as policy analyst: monitoring European cultural policy, drafting policy papers, conducting research, managing the organisation’s communication services and liaising with its member organisations. She has also represented the organisation in numerous events across Europe.
Trans Europe Halles (TEH)
Trans Europe Halles is a network of independent culture centres. It was founded in 1983 and currently has 48 members in 25 countries.
Trans Europe Halles provides a stimulating platform for exchange, support and co-operation between its members. The network brings together a great diversity of independent and multi-disciplinary cultural centres.
All of the organisations in Trans Europe Halles have their own distinguishing features; however they share the same spirit of support for new talent, innovation, young artists and cultural exchange. Many of the network’s centres have been pioneers in providing opportunities for young people to utilise and develop their artistic skills and challenging the common cultural policy.
The projects undertaken in the Trans Europe Halles network are conducted within the local context but provide an international perspective. They address artistic and social issues and aim to promote co-operation and understanding between European cultural organisations.
Trans Europe Halles supports the idea of culture in its broadest sense and encourages collaboration between different artistic disciplines. The network aims to support alternative modes of artistic expression and provide a stage for artistic work that cannot be experienced elsewhere.
Trans Europe Halles is a member of the European forum of arts and heritage, EFAH (www.efah.org).
Address: Stora Sodergatan 64, S- 222 23 Lund, Sweden
W: www.teh.net
PÅL STEIGAN
Member of the TEH Executive Committee
E: pal@artemisia.no
Pål Steigan, born 1949, politician, activist, editor, trade unionist and cultural developer. Editor of CAPLEX Norwegian encyclopaedia 1985—99, pioneered CD-ROM business by publishing first European encyclopaedia on CD-ROM in 1986, first Nordic multimedia encyclopaedia 1992. Has been lecturing on multimedia and lexicography 1985-2004. Has published a number of non-fiction books. One of the founders of Centrostudi italo-norvegese di Tolfa 1995. Norwegian expert delegate to EU Infocom 1998—2000, president of Norway’s Info2000 committee 1998—2000. Founded his own internet and multimedia consultancy Artemisia 1999. Founder (2002), owner and president of Parkteatret Scene.
Balkan Dance Network (BDN)
Balkan Dance Network is regional initiative of dancers, choreographers, performers and managers that aims to develop and promote contemporary dance in its artistic and educational aspects. It is initiated and operated by individuals and groups who are from or have interest in collaborating with artists and institutions in the Balkan region.
All members of the Network share the same idea: improvement and professionalisation of contemporary dance.
The Network was initiated during the Balkan Express meeting in Belgrade in March 2005.
W: www.balkandancenetwork.org, E: alfirevic@dancestation.org
DRAGANA ALFIREVIĆ
Network coordinator
E: alfirevic@dancestation.org
Dragana Alfirević was born in Belgrade in 1976, where she studied History of Arts. She graduated from Specialist studies in performing arts and Theory “Body Unlimited” and Art Academy of Novi Sad. She collaborated and studied with different artists and pedagogues in Europe and Brazil. She is the author of numerous theatre and dance projects and she is interested in merging forms of performing arts, as well as in working with marginalized groups through arts. Dragana is a co-founder of STATION Service for Contemporary Dance in Serbia and a co-founder of Balkan Dance Network.
InSEEcp - Informal Network of South- Eastern European Cultural Portals
The Informal SEE network of cultural portals, as the result of two regional workshops of cultural portals (Belgrade 2006 and 2007), is the first initiative of that kind in region. Regarding the importance of digital culture and our common problems (cultural policy, IT development…) and sort of gap in this field between our and EU countries, as well as fast development of web technology generally, our network is needed for improving our professional and technical skills by exchanging information and experience, as well as because of our aim to support and promote quality culture production and also to bring new audience to our respective portals.
As for now, there isn’t such of regional platform for cultural portals in the former Yugoslavia region and wider, and the cooperation in culture on institutional (state) level between the countries in the region is slow and overwhelmed with administrative issues. Informal SEE Network of Cultural Portals will strive for:
building technical and other capacity of our Informal SEE Network of cultural portals;
organizing joint on-line and off-line actions for advocacy in culture in internet and cross border cooperation in culture, as well as cultural policy development;
broadening our network with cultural portals in ours and other countries in region.
The participating countries (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia) in the first phase of this developmental project (other countries from SEE region will be included in the second phase) are from the same former Yugoslavia region, with similar languages and cultural, social and political history.
W: http://inseecp.blogspot.com/
VESNA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ
Network co-founder and member
E: vesna@seecult.org
Personal info: Born October 18th, 1971, Belgrade
Education: 1990- 1999 The Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade University BA in Journalism and Communication, 1986- 1990 XIII Grammar School, Belgrade (Graduated in Organization of culture and art programs on TV, movie and theatre).
Selected extracurricular education:
- November 8-9, 2007: Conference “The Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue and the White paper of the Council of Europe”, Belgrade, organized by Serbian Ministry for culture
- June 15-16, 2007: Conference “Toward a European public space - for a transnational newspaper and magazine network in Central Eastern Europe”, organized by Berlin based portal Signandsight.com, Goethe-Institute Prague
- March 28-30, 2007: Forum Belgrade, A Soul for Europe Initiative, Belgrade, organized by Culture Network
- October 20-22, 2006: Second Culture.mondo International Roundtable on cultural portals “Cultural Portals: A New Era of Cooperation”, Dubrovnik, Croatia
- January-February 2003: Journalism Training Program, Boston / Washington, organized by WBUR, supported by State Department
- October 2003: Exchange program “Journalist cooperation between Serbia and Germany”, Berlin, supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 1996 – 2000: English for journalism, Syllabus Language School, Belgrade
Work experience:
2006... Freelance journalist, PR, Culture and debate events organizer
2006... Culture center Magacin u Kraljevica Marka, Belgrade, Program organizer, Project coordinator
2003... Portal for South-East Europe culture SEEcult.org, Co-founder, Editor, Journalist, Project manager
2002... NGO SEEcult.org, Belgrade, Co-founder, Director, Project manager
2002... Independent Journalist Association Serbia, Belgrade, IJAS’ Dossier writer, Project coordinator
2000-2002: SubCode web project, Co-founder, Project coordination
1998–2000: WorldBeograd web project, Co-founder, Project coordination
1999-2007: Reporter Without Borders, Paris, Correspondent for Serbia and Montenegro
1999–2006: News agency Beta, Belgrade, Journalist, Editor, Project coordinator
1997-1998: Printing House Publikum (FIA Artistic Group projects), PR, Creative campaign for Publikum’s annual Calendar of new art and contemporary life
1996–1999: News agency FoNet, Journalist
1992–1996: News agency Tanjug, Journalist
1992–2006: Various print media (Student, Belgrade Weekly, Nasa borba, CoRD magazine…), Journalist
1989–1991: Culture center “Sumice”, Belgrade, Program organizer and producer
COMMUNIA - European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain
The COMMUNIA Thematic Network aims at becoming a European point of reference for theoretical analysis and strategic policy discussion of existing and emerging issues concerning the public domain in the digital environment - as well as related topics, including, but not limited to, alternative forms of licensing for creative material; open access to scientific publications and research results; management of works whose authors are unknown (i.e. orphan works).
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus framework, the 3-years long project expects to provide policy guidelines that will help each stakeholder involved - public and private, from the local to the European and global level.
COMMUNIA also plans to build strategic relationships with other non-European countries (starting with the United States and Brazil, where two COMMUNIA members are located) in which similar policy discussions are currently underway.
COMMUNIA is coordinated by the Politecnico of Torino's NEXA Research Center for Internet and Society. It started its activities on 1 September 2007 and will end on 31 August 2010.
W: www.communia-project.eu/, E: coordinator@communia-project.eu
JUAN CARLOS DE MARTIN
Network coordinator
E: coordinator@communia-project.eu
Associate Professor at the Politecnico di Torino's Information Engineering School, where he leads the Internet Media Group, he previously spent several years at Italy's National Research Council, two years as Visiting Scholar at the University of California, and two years in Dallas as Texas Instruments technical staff member and as adjunct professor at the University of Texas. Since 2003 he has been leading the Creative Commons Italy project, and in 2006 founded NEXA Research Center for Internet and Society at the Politecnico di Torino. He is also a IEEE member and author or co-author of over seventy international scientific publications.
The international conference entitled Re-network! represents a public part of the Informal meeting of European Cultural Contact Points (CCP Meeting) taking place in Ljubljana and Maribor from 11 to 14 June 2008 as one of the official events within the Slovene EU Presidency cultural programme. The CCP meeting is organized by Cultural Contact Point Slovenia / SCCA, Centre for Contemporary Arts–Ljubljana, the national EYID 2008 partner, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the European Commission (DG EAC) and Executive Agency (EACEA), Kibla – Association for Culture and Education, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and other partners.
This conference reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 
