Women who get things moving in Brussels

Esther BECK

Coordonnateur, Nuit Blanche

Esther Beck arrived in Brussels as a twenty year old, in order to begin socio-cultural communication studies and discover the artistic and festive potential of the European capital.

Shortly after the end of her course, completed by an international management diploma in the Netherlands, she began as a production assistant in a firm specialised in organising events. One of her projects was the programming of the Iris Festival, a festival in the Brussels-Capital region. A few months later, in relation to the European project Sleepless Night, she was in charge of coordinating 8 dinner dances in unusual places in Brussels. At the end of 2006, she took on the general coordination of this event which aims at promoting contemporary creation and staging public areas.

Marie CABANAC

Designer, Ethic Wear

Born in Toulouse, Marie Cabanac studied painting and sculpture at the Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, before designing hats and theatre costumes in various European towns, watching, gleaning, collecting, cutting and sewing in accordance with the people encountered and the places visited.

Further to the creation of the costumes on a Zap Mama album, Marie Daulne’s cousin, Nina de Goeyse invited her to present her work in Brussels in the Marolles district in 1994. There, Marie fell immediately in love with this town and its human warmth, and set up home there permanently with her son, born in 1997.

She started ETHIC WEAR with her brother Paul in 2003 and has since continued to design the original, colourful and fun collections of this make, a pioneer of Fashion and Sustainable Development in her boutique-workshop in the historical part of this "countryside capital" as Marie likes to describe her town.

Kareen GOLDFELDER

Marketing & Branding
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is reputed for the quality of its temporary exhibitions, its scientific rigour and the beauty of the specimens displayed. By offering today the largest Dinosaur Gallery in Europe, it raises Brussels to the level of the great museums in Paris, London or elsewhere.

As marketing and branding manager, she is involved, with all of her colleagues, in promoting the image of this museum beyond the borders, on a cultural, tourist and scientific level.

Malika HAMZA

MCreator of flavours
Chairwoman of the Slow Food Brussels Convivium

For around fifteen years, Malika has worked as a public affairs management consultant in the sectors of cultural heritage, tourism and sustainable development. Fascinated by cooking since her childhood, she created Innovative Cuisine five years ago, based in Brussels, whose activity consists in culinary research. Innovative Cuisine thus offers services such as cooking classes, designing recipes for companies or the media, culinary style, gourmet experiences and culinary consulting. Since July 2007, Malika is chairwoman of Karikol, a Slow Food convivium in Brussels http://karikol-slowfoodbruxelles.skynetblogs.be which aims at promoting sustainable and tasty food in Brussels.

Malika is also actively involved in promoting and protecting the culinary heritage: member of the group of experts set up by the European Institute of Food History and Cultures linked to the François Rabelais University in Tours www.iehca.eu which aims at recognising culinary heritage as an intangible asset, member of the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites ), member of ICOMOS’ international scientific committee for the interpretation and presentation of assets http://icip.icomos.org, member of the quality committee implemented by the Flemish Culture Minister in relation to the organisation of the 2007 Taste Week www.weekvandesmaak.be and member of the jury for the Flemish culinary culture award.

Malika is French, and was educated in France and Belgium. She has a Masters in Tourism from the ULB (Free University of Brussels).

Diane HENNEBERT

Director of the Boghossian Foundation

(born in the Congo in 1957)

With a degree in journalism and a Lecturer in philosophy (ULB – Free University of Brussels), Diane Hennebert has successively held the positions of Artistic Director of Botanique, Managing Director of the Walloon-Brussels Centre in Paris, Managing Director of the Architecture Foundation in Brussels, of the Atomium and, since this year 2007, Director of the Boghossian Foundation which recently acquired the very beautiful Villa Empain, a jewel of the Belgian Art Deco heritage, with a view to creating a Centre for dialogue between the Eastern and Western cultures.

This course where urban culture is at the heart of the projects and creations. Diane Hennebert has also been in charge of coordinating several town-planning projects in the European district of Brussels, and led a children’s urban education programme for the European Commission. Several publications, including a book devoted to Brussels (2004), and the spectacular renovation of the Atomium complete

Sophie LE CLERCQ

Chairwoman, CIT Blaton

Sophie Le Clercq, Managing Director of JCX Immo et Gestion, and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Cit Blaton, also holds several active corporate positions in private companies or associations. She has gained broad experience in the property sector, both from the point of view of a real estate developer, and as an entrepreneur (from mother to daughter) or a real estate assets manager.

Her interest has led her to favour quality architecture integrated in its urban context and environment. In this respect, she favours long-lasting projects (passive buildings, alternative heating techniques, seta systems (harnessing energy in the aquifer layers, etc.) and restoring assets with high heritage value.

Her concerns have led her, in particular, to begin the restoration of the Blomme building of the former Wielemans-Ceupens breweries in Forest with a view to setting up a Contemporary Art Centre, the Wiels, there, of which she is an active director.

Caroline MIEROP

Principal, ENSAV La Cambre

Caroline Mierop is the principal of the La Cambre ENSAV (National School for Visual Arts) in Brussels.

This school is among the leading establishments that contribute, in higher education, to the artistic and cultural energy in Brussels and to its expansion, both on a national and international level. Its students and former students, and its teachers occupy a high place in the world of contemporary creation, whether for fashion creation or design, photography, graphic and visual communication, animation, sculpture, engraving, restoring works of art, etc.

The school’s reputation, from its foundation by the architect Henry van de Velde in 1927, has always attracted a significant number of foreign students: 11 different nationalities from 1931, and around thirty today.

In addition to the activities of the artists and creators from the La Cambre school, this establishment plays an important cultural role in Brussels in particular through its editorial activity, the organisation of public conferences, trade fairs, fashion shows, ... and its attendance at several external festivals and exhibitions.

Sonja NOËL

Chairwoman of Modo Bruxellae

A pioneer of Belgian fashion and the Dansaert district with the Boutique Stijl opened 23 years ago, she is always on the lookout for innovations, and steadfastly promotes creation in Brussels. She became chairwoman of Modo Bruxellae in Spring 2007.

Isabelle PAELINCK

Arau – Voir et Dire Bruxelles In charge of guided tours

Degree in Plastic Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Brussels. Formerly PA of the CTEJ (Children and Youth Theatre).

For the last five years, Isabelle Paelinck, in charge of organising and promoting guided tours of the ARAU asbl (Urban Research and Action Workshop), has organised public and private guided tours of the ARAU (8,000 visitors per year), coordinated the manufacture of the promotional tools (brochures, website, …), maintained relations with the ARAU’s tourist partners and contributed to the ARAU’s general reflections on the town.

She represents the ARAU within the Voir et Dire Bruxelles round table, which is especially in charge of media partnerships and promotion in relation to the Art Nouveau Biennial event.

Joëlle VANDENBEMDEN

Organizer of fashion fair for children and adults

While the Antwerp and Brussels designers were exalting “made in Belgium” labels on the Paris podiums, the scene in the Belgian fashion shows remained decidedly deserted. Whether in Gand, Courtrai or Brussels, no matter how much private promoters or public organisations increased their efforts to line up an event, all of their initiatives invariably came to a sudden end. So much so that the country’s retailers and buyers resigned themselves to travelling to Paris, Cologne or Düsseldorf to discover the new Belgian collections. Until the day when…

Until that day in January 1997 when three young women, energetic and mad about fashion, Joëlle Vandenbemden, Nathalie Graevenitz and Valérie Sieuw, had the idea of creating KID'S FASHION BRUSSELS.