Riga - European Capital of Culture 2014 candidate

iga’s 2014 ecc projecttask groupDiāna Čivle, member of the task group, M. A. soc. sc., musicologist.She first studied cultural management at the Marcel HicterFoundation in Brussels, Belgium, completed a musicology studyprogramme at the Latvian Academy of Music and a public leadershipprogramme at the Faculty of Economics of the Universityof Latvia. She is currently continuing her doctoral studies at theFaculty of Economics and Management. She has previouslyworked as a press advisor for the mayor of Riga. From 1997 to2001, she was the deputy director of Aģentūra Rīga 800, which,over a four-year period, organized Riga’s immensely successful800 th anniversary celebrations in 2001. She has worked as the directorof the Riga City Council’s Department of Culture since 2002and has led the preparation of several major event programmesin Riga, including Eurovision 2003, Europeade 2004, and the culturalprogramme during the World Ice Hockey Championship in2006. She also helped to organize Latvia’s song and dance festivalsin 2003 and 2008. She currently heads the artistic councilfor Riga’s annual city celebrations and was the artistic conceptauthor of the “Radiant Riga” (Staro Rīga) light festival. She alsoheads the Culture Accessibility and Entitlement task group of theEUROCITIES cultural forum.Gints Grūbe, member of the task group. M. A. pol. sc., publicist,political scientist, movie director. He studied philosophy andpolitical science at the University of Latvia and the University ofBonn in Germany, as well as communications sciences at theFree University of Berlin. He has more than 15 years of work experiencewith various mass media. At the beginning of the 1990s, heworked as an editor at the Latvian newspaper Atmoda and tookpart in the founding of another newspaper, Nakts. He has taughtPolitical culture and participation to social science students at theUniversity of Latvia. For eight years, he hosted an interview showentitled Vakara intervija on Latvia’s national television networkand has received several National Radio and Television Councilawards. In 2000, he founded his own film studio Mistrus Media.He has also directed and written the screenplays for several documentaryfilms. He regularly publishes articles in the Latvian dailynewspaper Diena, the Latvian magazine Rīgas Laiks, as well asthe Latvian internet portals Delfi and www.politika.lv. He is currentlyworking on documentary films about the Latvian-born philosopherIsaiah Berlin and the Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis.Solvita Krese, member of the task group. M. A. art., art critic andart exhibition curator with many years of international experience.After graduating from the art sciences department of the LatvianAcademy of Art, she studied cultural management at the MarcelHicter Foundation in Brussels, Belgium. She is currently writing herdoctoral thesis on art and its context and has been heading Latvia’sContemporary Arts Centre (Laikmetīgās mākslas centrs) since2000. As an art exhibition curator, she organized several largescaleinternational art projects, including Robežpārkāpēji (Illegalborder crossers), Re:public, Rea-litātes arheoloģija (Archaeologyof reality), Urbanoloģika and Mobilais muzejs (Mobile museum).She has taken part in several study projects about the artprocesses of the 1980s and the non-conformist art scene. Herprofessional interest fields include the relationship between artand the urban environment, art and its socio-political context,as well as gender issues. She has authored numerous articlesfor the Latvian art magazine Studija, the daily newspaper Dienaand various art exhibition and artists’ catalogues. She is also oneof the initiators and founders of the Contemporary Culture NongovernmentalOrganization Association (Laikmetīgās kul-tūrasNevalstisko organizāciju asociācija). Currently she is working ona major international art project entitled “Survival Kit”, which willtake place in Riga this autumn.Egils Mednis, Riga’s ECC task group artist and the graphic designauthor of Riga’s ECC application. B. A. art., artist, owner ofthe company SIA Svešās tehnoloģijas (Foreign technologies, Ltd.).He specializes in various types of graphic design, as well as in thecreation of multimedia, machinima and computer games projects.He formerly taught at the visual communications department ofthe Latvian Academy of Art and was the artistic director at “FilmAngels Studio”. He was the artistic design and decoration authorat several Riga city festivals, including the Riga Light Festival. Hewas also involved in the creation of several publications connectedwith Riga’s 800 th anniversary celebrations in 2001, and otherevents. He has also worked on the design of a number of films.He received the Jury Prize for the film Kuģis (the Ship, 2008) at theNext Generation Machinima Contest in California, USA, as well asthree other awards for best festival film, best independent film andbest direction at the Machinima Filmfestival in New York, USA.Aiva Rozenberga, project manager of Riga’s ECC application. M.A. hum. sc. During her studies at the University of Latvia, shespecialized in Russian literature and cultural history. She workedas a journalist at Latvian Radio, as a special radio correspondentin Estonia, and then in the administrative offices of two Latvianpresidents. From 1999–2007, she worked as the press secretaryand communications service director for Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga,the former President of Latvia. She also worked in the organizinggroup of the Riga NATO summit in 2006, on Vīķe-Freiberga’scampaign for the office of UN Secretary General that same year,as well as on the Latvian President’s campaign to inform the worldabout Latvia’s position regarding the commemoration of the 60 thanniversary of the end of the Second World War, which saw thethree Baltic countries lose their independence and the subjugationof Central and Eastern Europe to communist rule for severaldecades after 1945. In 2007 and 2008, she was the press secretaryof the Latvian Song and Dance Celebration, which tookplace in 2008. She also served as a task group consultant for theRepublic of Latvia’s 90 th anniversary celebrations that same year.In 2007, she completed the Die Zeit Foundation’s Young WorldLeaders study cycle at the Bucerius Summer School on GlobalGovernance.Ieva Stare, project assistant of Riga’s ECC application. B. A. pol.sc. As part of her education, she engaged in international peaceand conflict studies at Uppsala University in Sweden within theframework of a University of Latvia study programme. In 2000, sheworked at the International Film Centre in Riga as the FIPRESCIjury secretary and was on the editorial board of the cataloguethat was issued for the Latvian film forum Arsenāls. From 2001 to2003, she worked as a journalist for the Baltic News Service, reportingon news events concerning Latvia’s foreign and defencepolicies and Latvia’s integration into the European Union. Since2003, her professional activities have been connected with publicrelations. She worked as the press secretary for the pre-referendumleadership group, which had been formed by the Latviangovernment in preparation for Latvia’s accession to the EU; asproject manager at the public relations agency P.R.A.E. public relationsand at “PBN Company-Baltics”. She also worked as headof communications at the Latvian daughter company of the internationalconcern Ragn-Sells. In 2008, she helped to organize thework of the information and press centre for the Latvian Song andDance Celebration.183