Conference “Arts for Social Inclusion”

TOM FLEMING

Tom Fleming is an international authority on culture and the creative economy. Based in London and Porto, with associates in every region internationally, he is director of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC): www.tfconsultancy.co.uk

TFCC undertakes research and develops strategy and policy, advising Governments, municipalities and institutions on their approach to culture in development, culture-led innovation, and approaches to an inclusive and sustainable creative economy. TFCC has led national and cultural and creative economy programmes in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Norway, Malaysia, Mongolia, Portugal, Brazil, Jamaica and Ukraine. Tom is a ‘Balticphile’ and has undertaken many projects in the Baltic countries since 2005, delivering policy advice, undertaking research and collaborating with some of the region’s key cultural and creative agencies. 

Tom is a member of the council at Cultural Policy Designers Network.

NIKKY SMEDLEY

Nikky is an international speaker and trainer, creative practitioner, educational journalist, children’s storyteller and author. She has worked on either side of the arts and social inclusion: as a practitioner and as project manager. Her specialism in communication skills has proved vital on both sides of the fence.

Her book “Create, Perform, Teach! – An Early Years Practitioner’s Guide to Developing Your Creativity and Performance Skills” is published by Jessica Kingsley. 

Nikky is a member of the  Cultural Policy Designers Network.

TONI ATTARD

Toni Attard (Malta) is the founder and director of Culture Venture – an advisory, production and training firm for the cultural and creative sectors. For more than a decade in the public arts sector, Toni led numerous arts projects, established 10 public arts funding programmes and co-authored cultural policies and strategies for the arts and the creative economy. He is also a practicing theatre maker and festival director. Toni is a member of the council at Cultural Policy Designers Network.

RAGNAR SIIL

Ragnar is an internationally renown expert in cultural policies and creative industries strategies. Ragnar has conducted projects and trainings, given speeches and advised governments and cultural operators in more than 30 countries around the world.

Ragnar is a member of the council at Cultural Policy Designers Network.

SHARED EXPERIENCES

EVA LEEMET, Eva is a CEO of Creative Estonia, promoting creative entrepreneurship in all fields of creative economy in Estonia. Eva has MBA in business administration and is a qualified consultant in creative entrepreneurship. She has taken part in creative industries sector development since 2007. Eva is dedicated to help creative businesses to grow and find new export channels. She has shared her experience about developing the field of creative industries in Estonia among various partner networks in Nordic and Baltic regions and also in Russia.

She is going to talk about a project “Treasure chest” – discovering nice handicraft of minorities”.

HELEN SILDNA
Founder of Tallinn Music Week, Shiftworks

Helen Sildna, based in Estonia, has been a music promoter and events producer for 20 years. Having worked at Baltics’ biggest concert agency BDG (currently LiveNation) as an international talent booker, she established her own music promotion company Shiftworks in 2008, which has promoted Morrissey, Sigur Ros, Patti Smith, Feist and Regina Spektor to mention a few. Helen is the founder and owner of Tallinn Music Week. Having started out as a music industry conference and showcase festival in 2009, TMW has broadened its concept further into an all-encompassing city festival, covering arts, design, technology, city space and food culture, and discussing various societal issues within its talks sessions, presentations and conference panels. Helen is a board member of Music Estonia, previously also a member of former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ Think Tank. In 2014 Helen was awarded with the Tampere Music Award at Music & Media Finland’s industry gala for Exceptional Achievements in Music Business, in 2015 she was nominated the Citizen of the Year by Estonian Ministry of Culture and in 2016 Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves awarded her the Order of White Star of IV Class for her contribution to Estonian music life and civil society. Helen is an outspoken member of the creative community, vocal on equal rights, diversity and internationalisation.

IEVA NIEDRE (Foundation INITIUM, Latvia). She is working with community theatres, drama methods, is involved in pan-Baltic community projects.

Ieva Niedre as a creative producer has worked in different culture fields regionally, locally and in Europe. Since 2014 actively engaging with neighborhood development and applied arts projects with different communities of Latvia. Including several projects in Riga neighborhoods during Riga 2014 – European capital of culture. Since 2016 chairwoman of the board of Foundation INITIUM – culture production platform. Since 2018 the main focus of INITIUM has been applied theatre. Project “Stories of Latvia. Shakespeare meets Blaumanis” was made in collaboration with the Latvian Ministry of Culture, Latvian National Culture Center and British Council Latvia and its goal was to introduce society of Latvia with applied theatre methodology through the international expert led workshops and civic society work including understanding the needs and issues of various multilingual and multicultural communities of Latvia, leading up to more than 10 large scale productions. Since 2019 INITIUM is a part of the “Baltic applied theatre school” where applied arts work has been continued in collaboration with organisations from Lithuania and Estonia: arts agency “Artscape” (LT) and “Eesti Teatri-ja Draamahariduse Selts MTÜ” (EE).

AISTĖ ULUBEY   from Arts agency ‘Artscape’ is using arts for raising
awareness of migration, promoting diversity, developing participation
possibilities through artistic and cultural forms. Lithuania.