Change Is Not an Option

Bernd Fesel studied Economics and Philosophy in Heidelberg and Bonn and graduated with an economist degree. He is visiting professor at the University of Bonn, University of Arts Berlin and currently at the Institute for Culture and Media Management, KMM Hamburg. In 1990 he started his career in the art market, becoming 1997 Managing Director of the German and then the European Gallery Association. He also served as speaker of the German Arts Council.

In 2003 he founded the Office for Culture and Economy and served as advisor f.e. of the German UNESCO Commission and German Federal Foreign Office. He initiated the first national conference on creative industries in Berlin from 2004 to 2009, which was co-organized with the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation. Then he served as vice director at the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010, since 2011 as senior advisor at the European Centre for Creative Economy, www.e-c-c-e.com – a legacy of RUHR.2010.

Bernd Fesel has been speaker in Hearings of the European Parliament (2017 on Brexit) and conferences across Europe, special focus is on the spillover effects of the arts and creative industries. He initiated and leads the European Research Partnership on Cultural Creative Spillovers. www.ccspillovers.wikispaces.com

He was board member of the European network on cultural management and policy (ENCATC) in Brussels from 2015 to 2017 and is since 2016 director of the European Creative Business Network (ECBN) in Rotterdam. He is part of the Erasmus+ project on Co.Creation: www.cocreate.training

Pier Luigi Sacco is full professor at the University of Chieti-Pescara, interim director of the EIT-KIC AP10 Policy, senior advisor to the OECD and associate researcher at the metaLAB (at) Harvard and at Italy’s National Research Council. He has been the special advisor to the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, visiting professor at Harvard University and faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society. He is the founding co-director of the BACH Center (Biobehavioral Arts and Culture for Health, social cohesion and sustainability) at the University of Chieti-Pescara, a new interdisciplinary center specialized in research on the bio-behavioral impacts of arts and culture experiences from the molecular biology, neuroscience, neurophysiology, behavioral sciences, and psychological viewpoints. His research sits at the crossroads of cognitive and affective psychology, decision and behavioral sciences, and translational cognitive and affective neuroscience. His scientific interests focus on translating state of the art scientific knowledge on the role of arts and culture as a platform for prosocial attitudes and prosocial behavioral change into system-wide policy approaches to collective intelligence and prosocial problem solving.

He regularly gives courses and invited lectures in major universities worldwide. He works and consults internationally in the fields of culture-led local development and is often invited as keynote speaker in major cultural policy conferences worldwide. He has published more than 200 papers on international peer-reviewed journals and edited books with major international publishers.

In the European Parliament Christian Ehler is a member and EPP coordinator of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute member of the Committee on Culture. Christian Ehler is also member of the US Delegation and substitute member of the Delegation for relations with Israel as well as the Delegation for the Mediterranean.

Christian Ehler has been one of the leading figures in the design and implementation of the EU research and innovation programs, as Rapporteur for both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Christian Ehler is the initiator of an ITRE working group dedicated to closer parliamentary scrutiny of EU R&I -programs implementation and he is vice-chair of the EP think thank STOA.

Furthermore, Christian Ehler has been rapporteur of the joint report by the Industry and Culture Committee of the European Parliament entitled “A coherent EU policy for the cultural and creative industries in Europe”.