Marjolein van Bommel, Head of Mobility & Advice / Creative Europe Desk NL

After nine years as managing director at Het Filiaal theatermakers, an internationally travelling youth theatre company, I joined DutchCulture one year ago as the head of the Mobility & Advice team. This team includes TransArtists, the Mobility Info Point and two programmes financed by the European Union: Creative Europe and Europe for Citizens.  

What inspires me is the wide range of provisions and opportunities enabling Dutch artists and cultural organisations to collaborate internationally – residencies, European collaborations, mobility financing, etc. In my view, the Dutch cultural field sector could be taking much more advantage of that. Fortunately, it’s not just the national government, but municipalities and regions are increasingly showing an interest in international cultural collaboration as well. I hope that I can use my knowledge and work experience to offer an inspiring contribution in that area.

In addition to my job at DutchCulture, I am also a board member at Assitej NL, a world-wide network for the youth performing arts. In that capacity, I have personally witnessed how values such as freedom of speech and cultural expression cannot be taken for granted everywhere. Actively working to promote those values is one of the things that motivate me to engage in international collaboration.