The Tehran Art and Cultural Management Development Programme was designed as an intensive ten-day programme. Taking a practical approach, it focussed on developing essential professional competencies needed in order to manage art and cultural projects.

This course was designed to include a balance of theory and professional training and consisted of modules on project management framework for art, effective communication, self-development, teamwork, leadership, strategic management, marketing, project finances and fundraising. These modules were led by a mix of Iranian and Indian faculty and was supplemented by expert guest lecturers.

Facilitators

Ehsan Rasoulof is the owner and managing director of Mohsen Gallery. He has made this one of the leading art galleries in Tehran dedicated to showcasing emerging and mid-career Iranian and international artists focussed on contemporary art, since its establishment on January 8, 2010, in memory of Mohsen Rasoulof, a photographer and urban artists who died in a plane crash in 2009. Mohsen was Ehsan’s younger brother. Ehsan is the producer behind several emerging music bands and has produced various theatre performances and independent films in Iran.

Fazeh Aarabi, Co-Founder at Khalaagh Consulting Group, works as a researcher, learning facilitator and consultant in management. Over her brief experience in the field, Faezeh has played diverse roles in the Education, Talent Development and Strategic Management domains at several small and large scale consultancy projects in Iran. She brings with her a strong blend of Organizational Development and Coaching skills, along with a realistic view of business management. She is a certified facilitator for Effective Communication and Motivation and delivers leadership workshops for top level executives. Faezeh specializes in key areas like Leadership Effectiveness, Performance Management/Improvement, Change Management, Talent Management, Organizational Development and Coaching. Passionate about art, she has recently gained an interest in multi-disciplinary sciences at the intersection of art and management and is actively pursuing her project to introduce and develop art and cultural management in Iran.

Galareh Farhadian, Co-Founder, Consultant, and Trainer at Khalaagh Consulting Group, is also an instructor at the Industrial Management Institute. She has more than 16 years of experience in IT and management consulting, spanning several countries such as Sweden, UAE, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Venezuela, Canada and Turkey. Galareh knows how to develop talents in management fields based on her experience and knowledge. She focusses on the unique characteristics of each person to find channels for improvement.

Manisha Gupta has 20 years of experience in the social entrepreneurship sector of India. She joined Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 1994, a global organization of social entrepreneurs, where she served for nine years as the India Country Representative and International Director for Ashoka’s youth programs. During her tenure at Ashoka, Manisha worked with the India team to develop new initiatives to build a collaborative community of social entrepreneurs in the country. Manisha is the founder and Director at Start Up! which works as an angel investor, incubator and consultant to social entrepreneurs. Start Up! provides deep and immersive strategic development and execution support to seed and scale ventures that create lasting impact in under-served communities. Since 2009, Start Up! has incubated and scaled 12 social ventures, several of which are hybrid models. It has advised more than 30 leading social enterprises. Start Up! also conducts the outreach, due diligence and jury presentation for the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award – co-hosted jointly by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation. Manisha has served as a faculty member at ATSA since 2011. Over the last five years, she has advised more than 50 organizations in the field of contemporary arts across South Asia. Manisha has also been a consultant with international funding agencies. She has co-authored two books, 1098-Childline Calling and Opening Doors – Ten Years of Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships in India.

Pooja Sood is an independent Curator and Art Management Consultant. She is the Director of KHOJ. Pooja Sood’s contribution has been in the field of curating alternative contemporary art practices in India as well as exploring different models of collaboration and institution-building in contemporary art. As an independent curator, she was appointed Artistic Director and curator of 48ºc Public Art. Ecology, the first public art project in India commissioned by the Goethe Institute and GTZ, New Delhi in December 2008. She curated KHOJ LIVE08, a live arts Festival in March 2008. She has co-curated the exhibition “Have we met?” with curators from Indonesia, Japan and Thailand for the Japan Foundation in 2004. She was invited to curate a video art exhibition for the Musee D’ Ethnographie in Geneva in 2004 and was a guest curator for InteractiveA03 , a video art festival in Mexico in 2003, amongst others. Sood was on the selection committee of the Fukuoka Triennale # 4, Japan (Jan’09), the Transmediale Award, Berlin (Oct’08) and the Sovereign Art Prize, Hong Kong (Oct’08). Pooja has spoken and participated in various forums on Indian contemporary art, art management and South Asian art in India and abroad. Amongst others, she has made presentations at the Tate Britain (Feb’09), the Office of Contemporary Art, Norway (2006), Cultural Ecologies Seminar, Hong Kong (2006), Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane (2003), ArtSouthAsia Seminar in Manchester, UK (2003) and at the Winternachten Festival in The Hague (2002). She is a Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme, UK, for 2009-10.

Saam Farrokhi is a PhD graduate active in corporate finance. He has been involved in counseling art and cultural projects from the financial point of view for a few years now. He’s returning to teaching after several years to get the project managers going on finance principles at this workshop.