Rarița Zbranca

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.