About the hosting organization
The Association for Cultural Economics International’s (ACEI) Conference in 2025 is hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). This makes EUR the only organization that is hosting the ACEI Congress for a second time, after a first successful run there in 2002.
Within EUR, the Arts & Culture Studies Department of the Erasmus School of History, Culture, and Communication (ESHCC) organizes the event in co-operation with Engagement & Research Services (ERS). ESHCC features one of the largest and most productive clusters of cultural economists and closely related scholarship worldwide. Over the years, ESHCC staff has served as ACEI President (Professor emeritus Arjo Klamer) and longstanding editor-in-chief of the associated Journal of Cultural Economics (Professor emerita Ruth Towse). Several colleagues have been ACEI Board Members and Members of the journal’s Board of Editors.
ESHCC offers the Master specialization Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship. For over two decades, this MA programme has been consistently ranked within the top-five world-wide in arts management and currently graduates more than fifty students annually.
At ESHCC, cultural economists also work with specialized researchers from other disciplines, who focus on the cultural sector. At EUR this cluster is further complemented by related research in other faculties, such the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), the Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB), the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), and Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE).
EUR and ESHCC conduct numerous externally funded research and consultancy projects, promoting the economic and societal benefits of culture. Since 2022, EUR is also one of the founding partners of a Knowledge and Innovation Community, funded with well in excess of €150 Million by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EIT Culture & Creativity.
Local organizing committee of the ACEI Conference 2025
Coordination
- Jacqueline Kolpa (Project Manager, ERS)
- Ellen Loots (Associate Professor, ESHCC; from March 2025)
- Astrid Manden-Benneker (Innovation & Partnership Manager, ERS)
- Trilce Navarrete Hernandez (Assistant Professor, ESHCC; until March 2025)
- Barbara van der Schoot (Event Manager, ERS)
Other main contributors
- Carolina Dalla Chiesa (Assistant Professor, ESHCC; local program)
- Christian Handke (Associate Professor with ius promovendi, ESHCC; finance and communication)
- Mariangela Lavanga (Associate Professor, ESHCC; communication)
- Anna Mignosa (Assistant Professor, ESHCC; coordination of the Young Researchers Workshop)
- Valeria Morea (Assistant Professor, ESHCC; local program)
- Dylan Thompson (Assistant Professor, ESHCC; local program)
We further acknowledge invaluable support by Lénia Marques, Dina Nemirovsky.