Silver linings?

ELIA Executive Director doesn't let uncertainty get in the way, while she rearranges her November schedule, developing new plans and kicking-off the ELIA Academy in style. There are always silver linings if you look for them. Read how the ELIA team refocused and still managed to take big steps forward in new directions.

With Covid-19 raging through Europe and the rest of the world again, our decision to postpone the ELIA Leadership Symposium by half a year feels more than justified. It was so gratifying to read the many messages of support from participants who were registered, and such a relief to hear that you have rebooked to attend the new Symposium dates in June. Thank you - we appreciate your support.

It wasn't long before our agendas soon filled up, as we imagine yours did too. With the drive and impetus to ‘still getting things done’, two ELIA team members and I took the train to Berlin two weeks ago, (originally our Leadership Symposium dates) to spend a full-day working on our Agents of Transformation project. As you might recall, Agents of Transformations was our student conversation project which we developed together with the Berlin University of the Arts earlier this year, involving students from all over Europe creating a response and input for the New European Bauhaus initiative. A major highlight of the project involved a group of students talking directly with EU Commissioner, Mariya Gabriel last July about their ideas.

Well, given the pandemic, we had actually never met most of the team at the Berlin University of the Arts and this was our chance to come together and get some serious work done on framewords for involving students more in ELIA’s work in the future. Our conference manager Janja Ferenc and communications manager Derville Quigley came along, as did Christoph Weckerle from Zurich University of the Arts, and I think we can tell you already that it was a success. Apart from the actual work, it’s so important to connect with our members and this is why we also included a working dinner with some of the team members from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. It should be noted that Derville, who had started with ELIA in February 2020, until then had never been to a member event or met any ELIA members ‘live’ – highly overdue, of course.

Last week we were in Belgium, in a studio on the outskirts of Antwerp, for the live broadcast of the ELIA Academy, brought to you together with our hosts from LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. Embracing a new hybrid format, which included a digital lead-up in four online 'workshops' and culminates in a physical 2-day 'workout' event in Brussels – exciting. Even more so, is our collaboration with Company of Heroes, which includes the energetic and on-the-edge-of-his-seat theatre artist, Lucas de Man, who is moderating the entire series from beginning to end. Fasten your seatbelts folks!

Photo (from left to right): Maria Hansen, Executive Director ELIA, Christoph Weckerle, Executive Board Member, ELIA, Janja Ferenc, ELIA Conference Manager, Florian Hadler Visiting Professor, Berlin University of the Arts, Derville Quigley ELIA Communications Manager, Regina Werner, Head of the International Office, Berlin University of the Arts, and  Norbert Palz, President of Berlin University of the Arts.