Strong programme duo joins Aarhus 2017

Danish-Australian Juliana Engberg is new Programme Director. Carsten Holst continues as Strategic Advisor for the European Capital of Culture.

The roots are Danish, but the experience international. Today, the European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 announces the appointment of Danish-Australian Juliana Engberg as its new Programme Director after a very thorough recruitment process. 

Juliana Engberg is an award-winning and internationally recognized artistic director with close links to Denmark: Her father was Danish and her mother Australian.

Since 2002, Juliana Engberg has held the position as Artistic Director at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. She has been the Artistic Director and Curator of numerous international Biennales and arts festivals, such as the Biennale of Sydney 2014, and she has more than 30 years of experience within arts and culture. During this period, she has curated over 500 exhibitions. 

Chair of the Aarhus 2017 Board, Mayor of Aarhus Jacob Bundsgaard, welcomes the recruitment of Juliana Engberg.

“The appointment of Juliana Engberg ensures a strong focus on the international dimension of Aarhus 2017, which will benefit the entire region, and, in particular, our cultural sector. She will add strong competences to the Aarhus 2017 team. It is because of the strong international reputation of our CEO Rebecca Matthews that Aarhus is able to attract such a creative and international capacity as Juliana Engberg,” says Jacob Bundsgaard, who also welcomes that Carsten Holst, Director at Filmby Aarhus, continues as Strategic Advisor for Aarhus 2017.

CEO of Aarhus 2017, Rebecca Matthews, is excited that Juliana Engberg is appointed as Programme Director and joins the Secretariat for the next stage of the European Capital of Culture.

“Juliana Engberg has an incredible background and a reputation for creating ground breaking, compelling and engaging cultural activities and projects, and she has demonstrated strong skills in delivering complex, time sensitive and time expansive projects. Furthermore, the appointment of Carsten Holst as Strategic Advisor ensures continuity and a strong local link. I consider Juliana Engberg and Carsten Holst the perfect team,” says Rebecca Matthews.

Juliana Engberg is looking forward to being a part of Aarhus 2017.

“I am excited by the RETHINK vision that Aarhus 2017 has proposed for its year as European Capital of Culture. I find it also inspirational that the vision has been produced by discussions and consensus and is shared by the whole of the citizens of the Central Denmark Region. Together we will create unforgettable experiences in 2017. Through brave, bold and generative ideas made vivid in cultural activities created with our local partners and stakeholders, we will share this future with the European and global communities,” says Juliana Engberg and continues:

“On a personal level I feel very privileged to be offered the opportunity to work in the culture of my father and to bring awareness to the fantastic ethos that makes Denmark an outstanding example of social enterprise, innovation and forward thinking.” 

The father of Juliana Engberg, Eilif Christiansen Engberg, was born in Fredericia and after spending his youth working in agriculture, he became a sailor at the age of 14 and eventually fell in love in Melbourne and made Australia his home. 

“My father passed away some years ago, but I have travelled to Denmark over many years for work and I already have contacts in the Danish contemporary art community,” says the new Programme Director of Aarhus 2017.

Juliana Engberg takes up her new position on 13 April 2015.

Carsten Holst, who has been Interim Programme Director during the last five months, will continue as part-time Strategic Advisor while managing his job as Director of Filmby Aarhus.

”I am very happy to stay on board contributing to the continuity of this exciting project, which provides numerous opportunities for Aarhus and our region in 2017 and beyond. It is very important that the European Capital of Culture establishes a strong, future-oriented framework for inter-disciplinary, inter-municipal and inter-institutional collaborations across the Central Denmark Region,” says Carsten Holst and continues:

”I hope that the experience, Ole Wolf and I have built up over the last five months as Interim Programme Directors, will ensure further progress of Aarhus 2017, and I look forward working together with an international and very experienced cultural capacity as Juliana Engberg,” says Carsten Holst.