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WHO WE ARE
International Intelligence on Culture has a team of core staff supported by an international network of contacts, in particular, a high-level advisory board.
International Intelligence on Culture staff
Rod Fisher (Director)
Rod Fisher created the International Arts Bureau, now International Intelligence on Culture in 1994. He is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at City University, London; Co-Director of the UK National Committee of the European Cultural Foundation; a member of the International Academic Senate of the Balkan Media Academy; a Council member of the British Centre of the International Theatre Institute and a Founding Fellow of the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management. Rod co-founded the CIRCLE (Cultural Information and Research Centres Liaison in Europe) network and was its Chairman from 1985-94.
Before establishing the Bureau, Rod worked for the Arts Council of Great Britain, latterly as International Affairs Manager. He was the Council’s first Information Officer and also championed arts and disability issues. Prior to this he worked in several London Borough Councils where he was responsible for arts and leisure programmes, festivals (he helped establish the Greenwich Festival) and cultural and recreation facilities.
Rod co-ordinated the European Task Force which produced In from the Margins, a report on culture and development for the Council of Europe (1994/96). He has conducted research, lectured and/or delivered conference papers in 24 countries world-wide.
He has written, co-authored or edited more than 20 books, reports or directories and has had more than 70 papers or journal articles published on such issues as the European institutions, international funding opportunities, cultural networking and exchange, and comparative cultural policies and expenditure in different countries.
Pyrrhus Mercouris (Brussels Consultant)
Pyrrhus joined International Intelligence on Culture in September 1997 as Brussels-based consultant from the European Commission, where he had been working as an independent expert in the Cultural Programmes Unit. His work at the Commission involved processing and monitoring projects within the framework of the Raphael programme; he also monitored actions and programmes of other Directorates with a cultural dimension, with particular reference to the heritage sector. He also assisted with the research and preparation of the Commission’s First Report on the consideration of cultural aspects in European Community action.
Prior to this Pyrrhus worked for a year assisting the Commission’s former Kaleidoscope programme. Prior to his move to Brussels in 1992, Pyrrhus was Assistant Town Planner for the London Borough of Harrow, and an Assistant Bibliographer and Archaeologist at the Museum of London. Pyrrhus has previously worked in film worked in film and as a funding adviser to ICOMOS and several local authorities.
Sasha Koura (Manager)
Sasha Koura is an arts professional and artist, active in visual and carnival arts. She joined International Intelligence on Culture in January 2004 having worked in the Visual and Interdisciplianry Arts Departments of Arts Council England, National Office and prior to that at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. She has a degree in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Drawing and a Masters in Cultural Research from the London Consortium. Sasha grew up in London going to an International School; she has also lived and worked in St. Petersburg and Madrid.
Dacia Viejo-Rose (Research Officer and ECF UK Co-ordinator)
Dacia grew up in Madrid, New York and Geneva; she studied International Relations at Tufts University in Boston and completed an Euromaster Programme MA in Contemporary European Political Culture. Her interest in the post-war reconstruction of cultural heritage brought her to London to complete a further MA in Museum and Gallery Management at City University. Before coming to London Dacia spent 3 years working in the Department of Cultural policies starting as an intern and continuing as a consultant, wotking on projects such as the International Network of Observatories on Cultural Policies and theUNESCO Cities for Peace Prize, 2000 – 20001. She has also worked with the UN Information Service and Department of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva and VEGAP in Madrid the Spanish Society concerned with visual artists’s copyrights.
Ruth Hill (Information Officer)
Ruth Hill joined IIC as Information Officer in June 2004. Originally from Yorkshire, she has a BA Combined Studies in Art History and English Literature from Newcastle University and came to London in 1999 to work in the graphics/design industry. In 2001 Ruth joined the Visual Arts Team of the then Southern and South East Arts Board as Administration Assistant, leaving in 2002 to travel in America, Mexico and Guatemala. Prior to joining at IIC, she worked for the NHS Modernisation Agency as a Support Officer to the Intensive Support Programme and also enjoys arranging and participating in art exhibitions during her free time.
International Intelligence on Culture Board
Dr Franco Bianchini is Director of Cultural Planning Research and Programme Leader for the MA in European Cultural Planning at De Montfort University, Leicester. Franco has conducted research for numerous clients including the European Commission, Council of Europe, OECD, as well as acting as advisor/consultant to local, regional and national government departments and agencies, including Liverpool City Council, Barcelona City Council and the Scottish Development Agency. He is the author of a number of books and reports on urban cultural policies including Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration – The Western European Experience (co-editor, 1993), The Creative City (co-author, 1995) and Culture and Urban Neighbourhoods: A comparative report (co-author 1997).
Anthony Everitt is a writer, consultant and Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Nottingham Trent University. He was Secretary-General of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1990-1994, and Deputy Secretary-General 1985-1990. Before this he was Director of East Midlands Arts, Director of the Midland Group, and Features Editor of The Birmingham Post. In recent years, Anthony has undertaken consultancy work for, among others, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Irish Arts Council, Northern Ireland Arts Council, Arts Council of Wales, and the Government of Colombia. He lectures on cultural policy at City University, London.
His publications include In from the Margins, a major report on culture and development in Europe, and The Governance of Culture: Approaches to integrated cultural planning and policies, both for the Council of Europe; Joining In, an investigation into participatory music for the Gulbenkian Foundation; New Voices, a study of community radio, and a biography of the Roman statesmen and orator, Cicero. He is working on a life of the emperor Augustus. He is a Companion of Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and an Honorary Fellow of Dartington College of the Arts.
Christopher Gordon Christopher Gordon is an independent arts consultant, who was formerly Chief Executive of the English Regional Arts Boards consortium, and Director of the Council of Regional Arts Associations in England. Prior to that, he was County Arts Officer for Hampshire, Senior Arts Officer at the London Borough of Camden, and a music officer at the Arts Council of Great Britain.
He chaired the Council of Europe’s evaluation of cultural policy in Latvia, and was Rapporteur of the expert group examining Italy (published 1995). He is currently leading on the similar exercise in Cyprus. UNESCO in 2001 published his critical review of the cultural policy evaluation process. He was Treasurer of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH) for three years. Since becoming freelance, his projects have included work for the European Cultural Foundation (in the former Jugoslavia) and the European Union (research into cultural policy and social inclusion).
Christopher is president of the Advisory Board of the Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (Turin), and a Board member of the Brussels-based Fondation Marcel Hicter. Locally, he is a Council member of the University of Southampton, Chair of the Hampshire Sculpture Trust, and on Winchester Cathedral’s Fabric Committee. A visiting professor at the University of Bologna, Christopher is also an Honorary Fellow in cultural policy at the Universities of Warwick and Northumbria.
Dr Miklos Marschall is the Executive Director of Berlin-based Transparency International, a global non-governmental organisation concerned with democracy in governance. Between 1994 and 1998, he was Executive Director of CIVICUS in Washington D.C., a global network of NGOs and foundations to promote civil society. From 1991-1994, he served as Deputy Mayor of Budapest. As a cultural economist and researcher, he was one of the architects of the Hungarian Cultural Fund, the first arts council-type funding agency in Central and Eastern Europe. Dr Marschall is also Chair of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Timothy Mason is a museums, heritage and arts consultant with extensive international experience. From 1995 until March 2000 he was Director of the Museums and Galleries Commission in the UK. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of London Arts Board, Director of the Scottish Arts Council and Director of the Western Australian Arts Council, following an early career with theatre and dance companies in the UK. Professional engagements outside Europe have included Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore. He is currently Vice-Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the UK National Commission for UNESCO.
Ritva Mitchell is Head of Research for the Arts Council of Finland and is one of Europe’s foremost cultural researchers. For five years she worked at the Council of Europe as a programme advisor and was responsible for the European Programme of Cultural Policy Reviews. Prior to this she chaired the expert group evaluating cultural policy in Austria. Ritva is President of CIRCLE (Cultural Information and Research Centres Liaison in Europe), ERICarts (European Research Institute for Comparative Cultural Policy and the Arts) and the Orientation Board of the European Cultural Diploma in Project Management. She has extensive experience of providing policy and management advice to countries in Central, Eastern and South-East Europe.
J. Mark Schuster is Professor of Urban Cultural Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a public policy analyst specialising in the analysis of government policies, programmes and financing in culture, he has been an advisor to governments, cultural agencies and cultural organisations in North America, Europe and Australasia. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Barcelona, Postdoctoral Fellow at the French Ministry of Culture, and a Fulbright Fellow under the auspices of the Arts Council of New Zealand. His publications in the field of cultural policy include: Supporting the Arts: An International Comparative Study; Who’s to Pay for the Arts? The International Search for Models of Arts Support; The Audience for American Arts Museums; and Funding the Arts and Cultures through Dedicated State Lotteries. Professor Schuster is Joint Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economics, and Chairman of the International Alliance of First Night Celebrations.
Tay Tong has been General Manager of TheatreWorks, one of Singapore’s foremost theatre companies, since 1993, apart from a one year break to complete a Masters Degree in Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London. At TheatreWorks he established a network of overseas practitioners and initiated international exchange programmes with China, Japan, Australia, Germany, the UK and elsewhere. He also managed the Flying Circus Project, an international initiative involving artists from East and South East Asian countries, which has sought to incorporate traditional Asian artforms into contemporary performance. In 1999 he worked with Rod Fisher at the International Arts Bureau on the development of an international exchange policy for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Tay Tong is the only arts manager to have received the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Singapore Culture Award (1996).
Sun-man Tseng is a freelance consultant and lecturer in arts administration. He was Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council from 1997 to March 2001. Prior to this, he was Head of Radio Four, the classical music channel in Hong Kong (1994 1997), General Manager/Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival (1988 to 1994), and Assistant General Manager (Marketing and Development) of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (1982 1986). He received music training in Hong Kong and New York (B.A. and M.Mus), studied arts administration at City University, London, as well as gaining an MBA in Hong Kong. Since 1989, Sun-man has been a part-time lecturer in arts administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has also taught in Shanghai, Singapore and Macau. Sun-man was Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association from 1991-1994. He has served as a Board Member to many arts organisations and as advisor to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and to Hong Kong University music departments.