Interview with Lidia Varbanova

In ENCATC News, Issue No: 5/2013

For this month’s ENCATC in Contact we interviewed Lidia Varbanova who has joined ENCATC. Her areas of professional interest include: strategic management and entrepreneurship in the arts, organizational change and capacity building, innovative fundraising and marketing models in the arts, international cultural cooperation and networking, and using online technologies in the arts management practice and teaching. Her latest book Strategic Management in the Arts, published by Routledge, is a reflection of the many years of international experience in the sector. It focuses on innovative thinking and entrepreneurial actions in the arts and culture sector as two primary vectors in strategic management and discusses the necessity to cultivate an intrapreneurial climate in the arts as part of the overall strategic management process.

ENCATC: What is your motivation behind a return to ENCATC?

I have a long-standing professional history with ENCATC. I have been with the network since its inception and I experienced the many years of its growth and positive changes. In the period 1994-2002 I was a member, then a Board member, then the Vice-President of the network. I have always admired the innovative approach and the helpfulness of ENCATC, the ability of its Board and members to keep the network alive by initiating new projects on an ongoing basis: workshops, conferences, research groups, summer schools, and joined publications. A lot of my professional achievements are due to my contacts with the network members. I find the main coordination office always very efficient and responding to members’ requests and needs on time. ENCATC is my preferred network among the many that I know and I am currently affiliated with. It gives me a chance to belong, to participate, to stay tuned and inspired, and to share ideas and projects with a growing community of arts management educators and trainers.

ENCATC: What are your personal expectations concerning the ENCATC network?

I look forward to participating in the 21st Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium (5-7 November 2013). We do need to rethink education on arts and cultural management in light of the changing environment worldwide – political, economic, financial, social, technological, digital. I expect fresh viewpoints on how we could better prepare our students to be the arts managers and social leaders of the future – having a strategic vision, entrepreneurial skills, innovative thinking, and caring about their communities, both online and offline. As long as every network is nothing without its members, I expect from myself to be actively involved in the activities of the network and to continue contributing on an ongoing basis. I wish to meet new colleagues and friends and to renew valuable old connections. The need to recharge professionally by learning and sharing is what brings me back to the network. I plan to continue my professional practice worldwide, but mainly in Europe and Canada. I expect ENCATC to be this unique engine which stimulates us to think differently and to constantly advance.

ENCATC: How do you like to see ENCATC further develop in future?

I expect ENCATC to be always on the cutting edge of new subject areas the way it has always been in the past; to grow across Europe and beyond not only in numbers, but in bringing members with competences and experience that will help further advancement of arts management theory and methodology. I strongly support the belief of ENCATC in the “highest standards in education and training of cultural operators, and developing new approaches to the transformation of today’s society”. I want to see the network growing also through engaging online platforms, online courses and digital learning methodologies. Collaboration between the meetings on an ongoing basis is important in today’s globalized world. I also wish to participate in “open mind” sessions with colleagues from other countries-something like “innovative laboratories of thinking” on the advancement of arts management learning and training, on the effective linkages between the theory and practice, on the diversity in arts management methodologies between different countries and regions of the world. We do need to “think beyond the box”, and as long as we never have time for this, ENCATC could be a perfect place to stimulate us in this direction. I strongly believe in the transformative effect of the network’s activities on people and organisations: I myself have experienced this throughout the years. ENCATC has certainly made me a better professional and a happier person!

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ENCATC NEWS is a monthly  information service for  ENCATC Members produced by the ENCATC Office

Editor: Giannalia Cogliandro Beyens

Contributors:  Elizabeth Darley