Sara Whyatt, Lead Author
(United Kingdom)

Ms Sara Whyatt is a campaigner and researcher on freedom of artistic expression and human rights, notably as the director of PEN International’s freedom of expression programme for over 20 years and previously as the coordinator of Amnesty International’s Asia Research Department. At PEN, she worked with its global membership mobilising its campaigns for writers at risk as well as on other issues affecting freedom of expression including anti-terror legislation, criminal defamation laws, and actions by non-state entities, among others.

In 2013, Whyatt took up freelance consultancy, working on projects for Freemuse, Culture Action Europe, PEN International, and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange. She also works with UNESCO, developing training programmes for governments and civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as monitoring and reporting strategies to promote artistic freedom under the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Roxana Miranda Rupailaf
(Chile)

Ms Roxana Miranda Rupailaf is a Mapuche-Huilliche poet. She is a lecturer of Spanish Language and Communication at the Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile. She holds a master's degree in Contemporary Hispanic-American Literature from the Universidad Austral.

In 2006 and 2008, Ms Rupailaf was awarded writers grants by the National Council of Books and Reading, Chile for her unpublished book Seducción de los venenos [Seduction of Venom] and Invocación al Shumpall [Invocation to Shumpall] respectively. In 2012 she received the Municipal Literature Prize of Santiago for Shumpall (Del Aire Editores, 2011).

Ms Rupailaf has published Las tentaciones de Eva [the Tempations of Eva] (Chile, 2003), Seducción de los venenos [Seduction of Venom] (LOM Ediciones, Chile, 2008), Shumpall (Del Aire Editores, Chile, 2011; republished in 2018 by Pehuen Editores, Chile), Kopuke Filu (Pakarina, Peru, 2017), Trewa Ko (Del Aire Editores, Chile, 2017) and Antología Zewpe Mapu [Anthology] (Editorial Aparte, 2021).

Basma El Husseiny
(Egypt)

Ms Basma El Husseiny is a cultural manager, an activist for social change and a defender of cultural rights.

For the past 30 years, Ms El Husseiny has been involved in supporting independent cultural projects and organisations in the Arab region. In 2004, she founded Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Culture Resource), the first non-governmental regional cultural organisation in the Arab region. In 2007, she initiated and co-founded the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the region’s first independent cultural foundation. She currently leads the organisation, Action for Hope, which she founded in 2015 to address the cultural and social needs of distressed and displaced communities in the Arab region.

Between 1988 and 2003, Ms El Husseiny worked for the British Council in Egypt and the Ford Foundation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ms El Husseiny is a UNESCO expert in cultural governance since 2011. In October 2018, she won the UCLG Agenda21 for Culture International Award in Mexico City for her contribution to the relationship between culture and sustainable development.

Letila Mitchell
(Fiji)

Ms Letila Mitchell is a practising multimedia and performance artist. She is the Artistic Director for RakoPasefika, an Indigenous Oceanic creative company working with artists from around Oceania. She is also currently undertaking her Doctorate in Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and focusing her work on mapping and revitalising Rotuman Indigenous creative practice.

Ms Mitchell is an experienced cultural producer, artistic director, artist and performer. She is dedicated to creative projects that deliver positive social change for indigenous peoples. Recent career highlights include: First Nations producer at the Sydney Opera House; segment director for the Edinburgh Tattoo in Sydney in 2019; and opening and closing segment producer in 2017-2018 for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia (4 April to 15 April 2018).

Ms Mitchell was the founder of a Pacific regional network, the Pacific Arts Alliance and is the former Director of the Fiji Arts Council. She is an arts leader in the Pacific region and has undertaken pioneering work on several major projects including Te Mana O Te Moana. She has served on several boards and committees including the Uto ni Yalo, Commonwealth Group for Culture and Development, Auckland Museum Board and the Global South Arts and Cultural Initiative.

Katalin Krasznahorkai
(Germany)

Dr Katalin Krasznahorkai, a Gerda Henkel Senior Researcher at the University of Zurich, is a Berlin-based art historian, author and curator. In her research and curatorial work, she analyses diverse aspects of artistic freedom.

In her current research, Dr Krasznahorkai investigates Black Power in Eastern Europe: Angela Davis, the State Security and the Arts. Most recently, she curated the exhibition Artists & Agents. Performance Art and Secret Services with Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse, which was awarded Exhibition of the Year 2020 by the German AICA (German section of the Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art). Together with Sylvia Sasse, she is the editor of the book of the same name, published by Spector Books in 2019 (forthcoming in English in 2022).

Dr Krasznahorkai’s forthcoming monograph, Operative Art History or Who is Afraid of Artists? is to be published by Spector Books in 2022. Currently, she is also the Lead Expert and Curator for the Council of Europe's digital exhibition on artistic freedom Free to Create-Create to be Free.

Irene Agrivina
(Indonesia)

Open systems advocate, technologist, artist and educator, Ms Irene Agrivina is one of the founding members and current directors of HONF, the Yogyakarta-based arts, science and technology laboratory. Created in 1998, HONF aka the 'House of Natural Fiber' was born out of the social and political turmoil against the nepotism and corruption of the Suharto regime.

In 2013, Ms Agrivina co-founded XXLab, an all-female collective focusing on arts, science and free technology as a second generation of HONF’s spin-off communities. One of XXLab’s projects, SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE was awarded [the next idea] Art and Technology Grant voestalpine by Ars Electronica in 2015. In 2019, Ms Agrivina was chosen by Asialink, Australia as one of six women pioneers from south-east Asia and Australia.

Patrick Sam
(Namibia)

Mr Patrick Sam is a Namibian thought leader, born and raised in a marginalised community in the capital, Windhoek. He is the chairperson of the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN) and has been driving the transformation of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) in Namibia and southern Africa.

Mr Sam is a Board Member of the International Federation of Art Councils & Cultural Agencies (IFACCA), where he is also the Chair of the African Regional Chapter.

Mr Sam is a development consultant, broadcasting journalist, TV anchor and arts activist. As a Fulbright scholar, he completed an MA in International Education Development from Columbia University Teachers College and a BA from University College Utrecht in the Netherlands. Along with the NACN, he founded and hosted the first Art Summit of Southern Africa (ASSA) focused on strengthening the CCI in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) along with the IFACCA Africa Regional Chapter meeting.

Maria Lind
(Sweden)

Ms Maria Lind is a curator, art writer and educator. Since 2020, she is the Counsellor of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow. In 2016, she was the Artistic Director for the eleventh Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju, and in 2019 co-curator of The Art Encounters Biennial in Timisoara. She was Director of Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2011-2018); Director of the Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (2008-2010) and Director of Iaspis (International Artist Studio Programme in Sweden), Stockholm (2005-2007). During the 2010s, she also held the position of Professor of Artistic Research at the Oslo Art Academy.

From 2002 to 2004, Ms Lind was the Director of Kunstverein München, Munich. She was a curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm from 1997 to 2001. In 1998, she was co-curator of Manifesta 2, Luxembourg. In 2009, Ms Lind received the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement. She has been an art critic at the Swedish national dailies, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. Among her publications are Selected Maria Lind Writing (2010) and Seven Years: The Rematerialization of Art (2019), both Sternberg Press, and Konstringar: Vad gör samtidskonsten? (2021) Natur & Kultur.