at ECA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 7th November – 8th November 2008 in Dublin
Lolita Jablonskiene (PhD)
Chief curator National Gallery of Art, Lithuania.
Lolita is a contemporary art critic and curator based in Vilnius. From 2000 she headed the Contemporary Art Information Center (CAIC), which spun off from the Soros Foundation, and joined the Lithuanian Art Museum to work for Vilnius’ forthcoming National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. In 2002 she was appointed chief curator of the National Gallery. Jablonskiene is an ex-commissioner of the Lithuanian pavilions at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2005. She has curated art exhibitions in her home country and abroad, contributed art critical texts to Lithuanian and foreign press; lectures at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts (associate professor).
At present she is writing a book on the development of contemporary art practices in Lithuania during the 1990s. Jablonskien_ is a member of the Lithuanian National UNESCO Commission, and was a member of several national boards advising on issues of cultural policy including the Lithuanian Arts and Culture Board (vice chairwoman, since 2004) and the board of experts for the Lithuanian application “Vilnius – Culture Capital of Europe 2009” to the European Commission. Lolita is the guest editor of issue 10 of the Visual Artists Ireland journal, Printed Project, which is entitled “The Art of Living with Strangers”. This issue is based around the experience of the immigrant within their adopted environment.
Ole Reitov
Programme officer, Freemuse, Denmark.
Ole has lectured world-wide on music censorship, cultural policies and cultural diversity. Co-editor of 'Smashed Hits – the Book of Banned Music'. Ole took the initiative to the 1st World Conference on Music and Censorship. He has worked as a media and music consultant in Mali, India, Gabon, Botswana and Bhutan and as a journalist in more than 40 countries for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. Former chairman of the EBU World Music Workshop and former advisor to the Danish Centre for Culture and Development.
Helena Drnovsek-Zorko
Ambassador and Head of the Division of the international Cultural Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Slovenia.
Among her other responsibilities, she is responsible for organising the events concerning the intercultural dialogue in the field of her expertise, which is the crossover of culture and foreign relations. Before her current position she was the Slovenian Ambassador to Ireland. In 2006, she was appointed the ASEF (Asia Europe Foundation) Governor for Slovenia.
Pauline Hadaway
Director, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland.
Pauline has worked in arts management in Newcastle upon Tyne and Belfast since 1990 and has been Director of Belfast Exposed Photography since May 2000. Founded in 1983, Belfast Exposed Photography is a gallery of contemporary photography, archive and community photography resource, with a focus on commissioning and publication of new work. Pauline is also a freelance writer, with plays performed in Newcastle upon Tyne, Belfast and London, and articles published in Circa, spiked on line, Urban Design, The Visual Arts Newsletter, Architects’ Journal and Printed Project. Pauline has been active and vocal in challenging the new UK Border Agency regulations published in February 2008. These restrictive regulations mean that non EU artists and cultural workers are only allowed entry to the UK if they meet strict criteria.
Maria Badia I Cutchet
Member of the European Parliament (Socialist Group), Spain.
Maria Badia i Cutchet was born in 1947 in St. Quirze del Vallès, Barcelona.
Maria Badia studied English Philology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and worked as an English teacher in Primary Schools in Sabadell, Barcelona. In 1975 she became member of Convergència Socialista de Catalunya, a movement that later would become the Socialist Party in Catalonia.
She has been in charge of the General Secretariat Department of the Catalan Socialists in Barcelona, coordinator of the International Department of Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) in Madrid and in charge of the Cabinet of the President of Catalonia's Parliament.
In June 2000 she was elected member of the Executive Committee of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE) and Secretary of the International Department, she was re-elected in 2004 and recently in 2008.
Maria Badia is member of the European Parliament since the elections of 2004. She joins the Committee on Culture and Education and member of the Delegation for the relations with China. She is substitute member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and in the delegation for relations with South Africa, APEM and Central America.
In the European Parliament, Maria Badia is member of the Socialist Group. She works in the Committee on Culture and Education on several dossiers: Information Society, Communication, Education, European Higher Education Area, Intercultural Dialogue and cultural and education aspects of Legal Migration.
Dr Eva Lichtenberger
Member of the European Parliament (Green Party), Austria.
At the University of Innsbruck, Dr Lichtenberger studied psychology and art history (1975 – 1982) and political science and psychology, where she graduated with a PhD (1982 – 1987).
Chairwoman of the Greens in the Tyrol Regional Assembly (1989-1994). From 1994 - 1999 she was the first member of the Austrian Green Party to become Landesrat for environmental affairs. Advisory member of the environment committee of the city of Hall (1986 – 2002).
From 1999 to 2004 she was Member of the National Council of Austria (Nationalrat). Also during this period she was a member of the Austrian Parliament, member of the Transport Committee, of the Committee on National Defence and of the Main Committee (with responsibility for European affairs). Member of the Austrian Convention on constitutional reform (1999-2004). Since 2004 she is Member of the European Parliament and a Vice President of the Tibet Intergroup.