CAE announces its new executive committee
Culture Action Europe warmly welcomes the newly elected members of the executive committee. During the 2025 Annual General Assembly, Leanne Hoogwaerts (Kunsten ’92), Mateja Lazar (Motovila), and Rocío Nogales-Muriel (Smart Ibérica) were reelected, and Maria Hansen (ELIA), Marie Le Sourd (On the Move), and Rarița Zbranca (Cluj Cultural Centre) have been newly appointed to the board. They join our current board members Alessandra Gariboldi (Fondazione Fitzcarraldo), Katharina Weinert (European Music Council), Julie Ward, Celia Grau (Opera Europa), and Paul Dujardin (European Festivals Association).
We congratulate all the board members on their election results and look forward to working together! And a very special thanks go to the leaving CAE board members, Burak Sayin, Stefan Gies, and Inês Câmara.
Learn more about our new board members:
Maria Hansen | ELIA
Maria Hansen is the Executive Director of ELIA, Europe’s leading multidisciplinary network for higher arts education, representing nearly 300 institutions committed to international collaboration, peer learning, and arts advocacy. With over 30 years of leadership in the cultural sector across continents and disciplines, Maria began her career in performing arts in Germany and, aer completing an MBA, became Executive Director of the opera company in Ottawa, Canada. In 1995, she moved to the Netherlands, managing the Netherlands Bach Society and leading international tours. From 2007, she served as Managing Director of the Municipal Theatre and Concert Hall in Haarlem, focusing on sustainable cultural management and community engagement. Since joining ELIA in 2017, she has strengthened the network’s policy voice in Europe and championed higher arts education. Globally, she has been active in the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), serving on its Board and Executive Committee. In 2020, she received ISPA’s Patrick Hayes Award for transformative leadership, having earlier run the Berlin Marathon (2012) to raise funds for the organisation. Maria also sits on the University Council of Nuremberg University of Music and chairs the Hogenbijl Foundation, which awards prizes in classical music and filmmaking in the Netherlands. Her previous board roles include the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, youth ensemble Oorkaan, and the vocal group Frommermann. A strong advocate for ecological sustainability in the arts, she played a key role in launching the SHIFT eco-certification for European cultural networks. Outside of work, she enjoys bootcamp training in the dunes near her home in Haarlem, hosting dinners, and practicing meditation.
Marie Le Sourd | On the Move
Marie Le Sourd has been Secretary General of On the Move, the international information network for cultural mobility, since 2012. With over 25 years of experience in international cultural cooperation, Marie has built a career devoted to enhancing the mobility of artists and cultural professionals, advocating for fairer conditions, and ensuring access to knowledge and funding across borders. Prior to her role at On the Move, she directed the French Cultural Centre in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2006–2011), and worked at the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in Singapore for nearly a decade, including as Acting Director of the Culture Department. These experiences not only grounded her in the complexities of intercultural dialogue and institutional partnerships, but also nurtured her deep understanding of diverse regional and geopolitical contexts. At On the Move, she has been instrumental in transforming the organisation’s business model and consolidating its position as a reference point for mobility-related data, advocacy, and capacity-building within the cultural sector. She has fostered a wide network that spans from small grassroots initiatives to foundations, ministries, and international institutions, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, Africa, the SWANA region, and the United States. Marie is a member of the Editorial Board for the upcoming 2026 UNESCO Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity Report, and her contributions are centred around structural issues in cultural mobility such as environmental sustainability, accessibility, mental health, and working conditions.
Rarița Zbranca | Cluj Cultural Centre
Rarița Zbranca is a Romanian cultural expert with over 27 years of experience in arts management, cultural policy, research, and advocacy. She currently serves as Programme Director of the Cluj Cultural Centre, where she co-designs strategies and programmes that position culture as a catalyst for societal well-being and transformation. She holds a PhD in Cultural Policies (Babeș-Bolyai University, 2024), with a focus on the intersection between culture and well-being. Rarița is a member of the European Expert Network on Culture (EENC) and sits on Romania’s Economic and Social Council in the Committee on Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Culture. She is co-founder of both the AltArt Foundation (1997), which explores experimental intersections between art, technology and society, and Fabrica de Pensule, a pioneering independent contemporary arts space active from 2009 to 2020. She has contributed to initiatives such as A Soul for Europe, Culture Next, and the Balkan Express network. Rarița coordinated the development of Cluj-Napoca’s Cultural Strategy across three planning periods and played a central role in its European Capital of Culture 2021 bid. She was the lead author of the landmark CultureForHealth Report (2022), which laid out evidence and policy recommendations on the role of culture in health and well-being across Europe.