Urška Jež

I have been working in the field of arts & culture management, with a short detour to cultural politics, for twenty years. In 2014 I was given an opportunity to take the position of the business director of one of the oldest NGO cultural organisations in Slovenia with 30 years of tradition and an internationally known brand. Discovering the area of cultural management in the 3rd year of my Cultural Studies (in 2004) was life-changing.

I have often been coordinating holidays with friends, parties, birthday surprises and gatherings but never considered my professional path would lead me in the same direction. It all started with a student club and small events like literary evenings and book readings. And even today, after twenty years of countless projects and festivals, work with artists, fundraising and battling for survival, I am certain this is my professional calling.

The feeling of satisfaction when all the details of all year’s work come together, when the artists from all over the globe, audiences and professionals are brought together, is what keeps me going. I am a festival adrenaline addict. I believe that evolving, constantly learning and finding new approaches to art and festival management is the key to keeping the best team motivated to stay and grow. The fact that I am someone who loves her job in art management with all the good and bad elements it includes is probably the most important thing you should know about me.

I thrive most when the artistic process entails engaging communities, especially youth. Since 2016, I have been involved in the preparation of the #8MarchEveryDay teaching materials. Between 2009 and 2010, I participated in Kulturstik: A Pilot Project on Introducing New, Contemporary Arts Education Content and Methods in Primary School Curricula. Since 2005, I am working as an animator, mentor and youth camp leader: the Pinesta, d.o.o. Health Colony, Novigrad (2005–2010), and the Marindolus Kranj Youth Organisation (since 2010). I am the author of the study Kulturno-umetnostna vzgoja in nevladni sektor v kulturi (Arts Education and the NGO Sector in Culture, 2017).

I have been intrigued by a cross-sectorial collaboration of culture with the business sector since my student years. In recent years I was able to explore the collaboration through two wonderful projects: Culture Friendly Certificate and CultureForHealth, where we explored and tested the positive impact of artistic practices on the well-being of employees.

My almost two-decades-long presence in the non-profit sector brought me also to the topic of burnout. Naturally, one might say. Not necessarily, if we incorporate the right preventive measures into an organisation's every day. This is the topic that has been occupying me since 2019 and I have dedicated a large part of 2023-2024 to research the topic, collecting the good practices in the non-profits in Central and Eastern Europe.