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About us
artlink connects culture, art and people – in Switzerland and across continents. We promote artists from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe in Switzerland.
What we do
Since its foundation in 1984 artlink has promoted the work and performances of artists and cultural practitioners from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe in Switzerland. By facilitating their access to the Swiss cultural landscape artlink creates opportunities for and showcases these artists and cultural practitioners from the aforementioned regions in Switzerland.
artlink is committed to the inclusion of people with migration experience in the Swiss arts scene. artlink promotes exchange among cultural practitioners across different cultural contexts and forms of artistic expression. In doing so artlink fosters the diversity of the Swiss cultural landscape
A versatile organism
artlink is an independent association. The artlink staff and board brings together people with diverse biographies and work experiences. They share a desire to explore and pilot transcultural forms of cooperation. At artlink diversity, participation and inclusion are not just slogans – they are what we practice on a daily basis.
We are supported by several experts and project staff based in the funded regions or in Switzerland. We work with renowned national partners funding culture and development as well as with public and private arts donors in Switzerland.
Our working principles
Before we act, we listen. This requires meeting and exchanging with artists and partners on an equal footing. We design our work processes in participatory manners. The needs of artists and our partners are the starting point when we develop new projects and concepts. We involve artists and cultural practitioners in shaping new funding formats. We recognize that cultural promotion is not a democratic process. This is why diversity among external jurors who support artlink in advisory capacity is important. Diversity manifests itself in different aesthetic understandings and includes discussions about artistic conceptions of quality. This requires an ongoing engagement with and discussion of existing approaches and instruments in global arts production.
We regularly review our working principles in dialogue with trusted outsiders and adapt them where and when necessary. We are receptive to criticism and admit mistakes. Failure, self-criticism and humour help us moving forward. Pausing and reflecting are part of artlink's working process. Reflection is the foundation on which we design new interventions. We communicate our values, positions and decisions in a transparent way. We share our experiences with peer organisations and other interested parties. In doing so, we promote a critical dialogue with artists and partners.
Join the conversation!
Would you like to join the conversation about our work and its thematic areas? artlink appreciates debate and lively exchange. We create space for physical and digital encounters. We ask questions instead of making demands. We don't always agree but we like to be convinced - join the conversation!
Our policy context
An important framework for artlink's work is the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of 2005, which Switzerland ratified in 2008. The Convention posits that a creative economy not only generates jobs and income, but contributes to the strengthening of civil society, a diversity of ideas and freedom of expression. The Convention encourages established cultural markets, which are internationally connected – as is the case of Switzerland – to support artistic initiatives in parts of the world that lack a dynamic cultural economy.
We reflect
artlink reflects is a virtual space for pausing, reflecting and learning, where missteps, self-criticism and humour help us move forward.
- first edition: participatory practice and inclusion
- second edition: preserving new gained dynamics
- third edition: budget cuts
Our Team
Rahel Leupin
artlink Director
Focus: Theatre & Dance
Rahel Leupin is passionate about making arts and cultural policies more inclusive. For more than twenty years she has worked as a performing arts curator, arts funder and manager in Switzerland, the US and Denmark. She is a specialist in contemporary dance and theater and regularly consults for Swiss institutions, developing new funding and collaboration formats for artists, cultural workers and audiences. She holds a doctorate in Performance Design from Roskilde University.
Anastasia Alexandrova
Co-Programme Manager Here ! Am, Programme Manager South Culture Fund (Open Calls)
Focus: Visual Arts
Anastasia Alexandrova supports artlink as a programme manager and specialist in visual arts. She has more than fifteen years of experience as an art historian and cultural coordinator, collaborating with state and independent cultural institutions as well as publishing houses in Russia and Switzerland. In addition to her degree in art history from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexandrova holds a BA in Conservation of Modern Materials and Media from the Bern University of the Arts and has worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Markus Baumann
Programme Manager Weiter Schreiben Schweiz
Focus: Film and Literature
Markus Baumann has many years of experience in the promotion, production and implementation of projects in the fields of film, visual arts and music, as well as in cultural mediation. He is committed to the inclusion of immigrant artists and authors in the Swiss cultural landscape. Participation of artists and dialog at eye level are basic prerequisites for the successful and sustainable implementation of projects.
Nadina Bazzi
Co-Programme Manager Here ! Am, Project Leader artlinkDEBATES
Nadina Bazzi is responsible for communication and outreach at artlink. She majored in Anthropology and Media Studies at the University of Basel. Bazzi is interested in looking into how the dynamics of the Swiss cultural landscape can be made more inclusive. Particularly drawn to projects developed in a collaborative process she manages the initiative #seinodernichtsein, which seeks to provide social security for artists.
Malaya Del Rosario
Strategic Programme Consultant Turntables
Malaya del Rosario is passionate about helping creative ecosystems thrive. As an arts and culture specialist for the past 15 years, she has worked with galleries, governments and institutions like the British Council, growing their impact through strategy and partnerships. She has managed cultural programmes in Southeast Asia and the UK and writes about contemporary art, creative economy and cultural policy. She holds an MBA in Arts and Cultural Management from the Institut d’études supérieures des arts (IESA) and Paris School of Business.
Roberto Haçaturyan
Programme Manager South Culture Fund (Ongoing Grants)
Focus: Music
Roberto Hacaturyan is an ethnomusicologist and musician. He studied and performed as a multi-percussionist in Ghana, Cuba, Brazil and several countries in the Middle East. His research focuses on transcultural musical developments. Hacaturyan has collaborated with a range of artists both on stage and in the studio.
Virginia Kargachin
Programme Assistant Weiter Schreiben Schweiz and artlink Directory
Virginia Kargachin grew up in northern Argentina. She assists artlink in different projects such as Weiter Schreiben Schweiz and the artlink Directory. She has worked promoting Latin American cultural productions in Switzerland as an associate member of the Latin American Center Zurich and is interested in fostering intercultural competences in group dynamics. She holds an MA in Literary Studies from the University of Zurich.
Anna Haselbach
Responsible for Communication, Campaigning and Outreach
Anna Haselbach has been communicating and campaigning with NPOs such as Public Eye, HEKS/EPER or Caritas Switzerland for over ten years. She was also co-editor-in-chief of the online magazine ‘das Lamm’ and worked as a political secretary for a labour union. Haselbach holds an MA in English and German Languages and Literatures from the University of Zurich.
Our Board
Barbara Stocker is co-director and manager of Bühne Aarau. From 2008 to 2015, she directed the Biennale Bern, a transdisciplinary festival for contemporary art. From 2004 to 2016, she worked as a production manager for professional theatre productions and cultural projects in the independent scene in Switzerland and abroad under the label GO Theaterproduktionen. Before that, she worked as an assistant stage director at the Neumarkt Theatre in Zurich.
Jasper Walgrave began his career with the Lisbon-based performing arts platform Danças na Cidade/ Alkantara, and went on to work as project coordinator for the South African-Flemish project for Community Arts Centres. From 2007 to 2019 he worked for the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, first in Cape Town and Johannesburg heading its Southern African Liaison Office, then in Zurich managing the network of Liaison Offices, and later as head of the South America programme COINCIDENCIA. He is currently writing his PhD on Swiss-South African Cultural Relations 1948-94, hosted by the Bern University of the Arts and enrolled at the Université de Fribourg.
Sandro Lunin is the artistic co-director of the Performing Democracy Festival in Freiburg in Breisgau. He was the artistic director of the Kaserne Basel and the biennial international Theaterfestival Basel until 2023. With a special interest in the African continent and the Middle East, he has been active in theatre and dance for several decades. In the 1980s he was co-director of the theatre and dance department of the Rote Fabrik in Zurich and co-founder of the Blickfelder Festival, an international platform for experimental theatre for young audiences. From 1997 to 2007 he was artistic director of the Schlachthaus Theater in Bern, then artistic director of the Theaterspektakel Zurich until 2017.
Lisa Pedicino is co-director of the think & act thank INES – Institute New Switzerland, which focuses on democracy, participation and post-migrant society. For over ten years, she was head of diversity and equality at Pro Helvetia, developed promotion programmes for transformation processes in cultural as well as donor institutions, and established a monitoring system for diversity-sensitive data in the cultural sector together with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Berne. As a consultant, she supports organisations in analysing and implementing diversity and participation.
Dorothea Wawrinka began her career in 2009 in Kyrgyzstan, working at the intersection of culture and development at the Bishkek Art Center. She later broadened her international experience with positions at GIZ in China and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, followed by a decade at Helvetas, where she focused on international cooperation and its funding mechanisms. She has remained closely connected to the international art scene throughout her career. Dorothea brings to artlink a strong commitment to the role of the arts in society, along with deep expertise in the philanthropic funding landscape — especially at the intersection of art and development.