Mentors and Guest Speakers

 All our mentors and guest speakers at the Ateliers are renowned festival managers and directors, cross-sector experts, cultural activists, and artists. Our guest speakers are part of our programme for multiple days while mentors and facilitators are present for the whole period of the atelier. 

Members of the Alumni community of The Festival Academy are also invited to join the Atelier and take initiative leading sessions and involving professionals from their own networks (find out more about our Alumni-led sessions here).

During their participation, they not only act as lecturers but also as true mentors as they engage in one-on-one discussions with the participants.

You can have a look at the list of experts present during previous editions here.

Vigdís Jakobsdóttir is a cultural strategist and theatre director with extensive experience in festival leadership and artistic programming. From 2016 to 2024, she was Artistic Director and CEO of Reykjavík Arts Festival, Iceland’s leading multidisciplinary arts festival. Under her direction, the festival became a platform for bold artistic experimentation, international collaboration, and audience engagement across diverse communities. 

With a deep commitment to the transformative power of the arts, Vigdís specialises in developing creative strategies, fostering cross-disciplinary projects, and expanding access to culture. She now works as a freelance cultural strategist, collaborating with artists, institutions, and festivals worldwide to shape innovative artistic programmes and strengthen audience connections. 

Vigdís has been involved with The Festival Academy since 2019, contributing to its international knowledge-sharing network for festival leaders. 

Previously, she was Head of Education and Outreach at the National Theatre of Iceland (2002–2011) and Programme Director for MA studies in Theatre Education at Iceland University of the Arts (2002–2016), where she played a key role in developing arts education in Iceland. She also directed productions at the National Theatre of Iceland and with independent theatre companies. She is the founder of Þjóðleikur – The National Youth Theatre Festival in Iceland (2008–2017) and UNGI – an international performing arts festival for young audiences in Reykjavík (2013–2016), 

Vigdís served on the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) for six years (2011–2017), holding the role of Vice President during her second term (2014–2017). In recognition of her contributions to the field, she was named an Honorary Member of ASSITEJ in 2021.

Alia is a cultural strategist, artist and facilitator working at the intersection of art and social & environmental justice. Her practice uses the arts to interrogate the fundamental causes of inequality and explore alternative modes of understanding the world and being in it. She has worked with national and international organisations as a curator and storyteller to create critical encounters in education and the arts towards collective liberation, from local corner shops to world-renowned museums. 

Alia is a Chevening Scholar, a Clore Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has just been announced as an ISPA Fellow 2026. She is Artistic Director & CEO of Shubbak, Europe’s largest festival of contemporary Arab arts. She is rehearsing moving through life with critical humility, joy & rest, foregrounding dignity for all beings and the Earth, our only home. She pays it forward by volunteering nationally and internationally as a coach and mentor with those experiencing systemic barriers in the cultural and creative worlds.

Inge Ceustermans is the General Director of The Festival Academy, a non-profit organisation initiated by the European Festivals Association (EFA). Inge Ceustermans has a Master’s degree in Languages and Literature with a specialisation in Theatre Sciences. She was the general manager for the Brussels based artists’ company Needcompany under the artistic direction of Jan Lauwers from 2003-2012 before she started working for the European Festivals Association (EFA), a network organisation of more than 80 festivals in Europe and beyond. Apart from this, she is consulting different artists on their general strategy and international relations. She is also a member of the advisory committee for the Agency of Arts and Heritage in Flanders.

Multimedia artist and elucidator Nástio Mosquito is known for performances, videos, music and poetry that show an intense commitment to the open-ended potential of language. Easily misread as a kind of world weariness, it is the extraordinary expression of an urgent desire to engage with reality at all levels. 

Nástio Mosquito has realised projects with institutions including MoMA, New York; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Portikus, Frankfurt; Fondazione Prada, Milan; and Tate Modern, London. Amongst the many group exhibitions, he has participated in Documenta 14 (2017); the 9th Gwangju Biennial (2012); and the 29th São Paulo Bienal (2010). 

In 2014 he was recipient of the Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, and in 2015 the Cedric Willemen Award (Willemen Groep and Contour, Mechelen). In 2016, Mosquito was nominated for the Artes Mundi Prize, Cardiff.

Kelsa Trom is a culture worker, writer, and program designer. As Senior Program Manager in the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division, she develops initiatives that support cross-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new works in sculpture, sound, installation, performance, and more. Previously, as Associate Director of Programs at NEW INC, Kelsa worked closely with more than 500 artists, helping to shape their creative direction and professional growth. Over the past fifteen years, she has led cultural programs, design research, and community initiatives across the arts and nonprofit sectors. Her work is guided by a belief in collaboration as a form of discovery and in the power of creative practice to build connections across disciplines.

ONG Keng Sen is a theatre director. He was the first independent artist to become the founding festival director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) from 2013 to 2017. He founded the international Curator's Academy in 2018, which was hosted by the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin in 2019 – 2022.

Since 2023, he has led Per°Form, an international festival of discourse and social performance, by the creation of an open public academy. Last year he began the first Artistic Directors Academy which was a 15-month pilot project pioneering thought leadership in and from the arts.

He was the Artistic Director of the Amsterdam-based Prince Claus Funds’ digital 25-hour Festival in 2021 to commemorate its 25 years of existence, as well as its inaugural Biennial Symposium in Sri Lanka in December 2023 which he entitled “Legacies of Care, Failures, and Emerging Solidarities”. Along the way, he mentored Mobile Academies in Accra, Buenos Aires, and Kassel Documenta.

In 2022, Ong was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Arts London and was the Valeska Gert Guest Professor at Freie University Berlin. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University.

Argentine cultural manager, producer and curator of performing arts. Production director of FIBA, the Buenos Aires International Festival since 2020, as well as of the Ciudad Emergente festival (2019 to 2023) and the Buenos Aires Contemporary Dance Festival (2018 and 2020). Curator of performing arts at two cultural venues in Buenos Aires: ARTLAB and the Borges Cultural Centre. Former Production Head Manager in the Buenos Aires General Direction of Festivals and large-scale events under the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires. Production advisor for the Cazadores Foundation. Responsible of distribution for the PORNOTRÁFICO company (Mexico) and for the projects of the Cuerpo Sur Foundation (Chile), which include artists such as Malicho Vaca Valenzuela, Ébana Garín, Luis Guenel and Josefina Cerda. In May 2025, he collaborated in coordinating the professional meetings organised by ONDA in Argentina. In July 2025, he offered a workshop on international mobility between Latin America and France as part of Off'Pam (Off Performing Arts Market), a seminar platform for export presented by the Off Avignon Festival.

He received a scholarship from The Festival Academy and the European Festivals Association (EFA) to participate in the Atelier for Young Festival Directors (Donostia/San Sebastián), invited by the same institution, he participated in the Global Artivism Convening 2025, in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Together with 12 other cultural professionals, he formed the UNBOXED delegation within the framework of the Edinburgh festivals; by the CIFAS Producers Academy as part of the kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium); by the British Council to participate in sustainability training offered by Julie's Bicycle as part of the "Circular Culture" programme, and he was selected and awarded a scholarship to travel to South Korea and participate in the Cultural Experts Training Programme presented by the Cultural Partnership Initiative (CPI) organised by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) and the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO). His project "PLANTAR FESTIVAL" was awarded first prize for the best innovative proposal.