a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, teaches arts and cultural policies at Leiden University. Initiator and Chair of the European Festivals Research Project. Writer, lecturer, researcher,  advisor and frequent conference speaker, esp. on the contemporary performing arts, cultural policy and international cultural cooperation. Author of several books, most recently an exilic memoir Exercises in Exile (2004, 2006), Europe as a Cultural Project (Amsterdam 2005) and Mobility of Imagination, a companion guide to international cultural cooperation (Budapest 2007) and of many articles in journals and contributions to over 50 edited books.