Secretary General of the European Festivals Association (EFA), Brussels, Belgium
“My main ambition with EFA is to create a sense of collaboration and interaction between the people involved in it; the ones who make our festivals vibrant everywhere, who shape festival life with their questions, ideas, proposals, and insight into the arts and the world. As a team, we are a service provider for festivals, bringing together views and opinions so that they can be discussed openly.”
Kathrin Deventer is the Secretary General of the European Festivals Association (EFA). Kathrin is a Co-founder and Board member of the European House for Culture, an initiative of EFA, a member of the Strategy Group of “A Soul for Europe”, co-initiator and board member of The Festival Academy (TFA) and launched with EFA the new programme for arts festivals EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe including its FestivalFinder.eu, EFFEA – the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists, as well as Perform Europe with a constoritum of partners under the lead of IETM.
She served as a member of the Culture Committee of the EU’s “New Narrative for Europe” project. She has a special interest in culture and its role in civil society engagement and issues connected to the recognition of the importance of culture in society. She believes in a cultural Europe which emerges from responsibilities and interactions between people and organisations from all sectors in society.
Kathrin Deventer was born in Germany. She studied Italian literature and political science in Amsterdam and graduated in 2004. From 2002 to 2004 she set up projects in the framework and as part of Genoa – European Capital of Culture 2004. In 2004, Kathrin Deventer moved to Belgium to work for the European Festivals Association (EFA) becoming its Secretary General in 2008. Kathrin Dev enter has a special interest in culture and its role in civil society engagement and issues connected to the recognition of the importance of culture in society.
She believes in a cultural Europe which emerges from responsibilities and interactions between people and organisations from all sectors in society. Kathrin is invited as lecturer on European cultural policies issues. Publications include texts for the EFA BOOKS series, several magazines and articles for different websites.