Indrasen Vencatachellum is Former Director of UNESCO’s Division for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and Creative Industries. Since 2008, Independent Consultant in Culture and Development projects for EU, UNDP, and UNESCO. Currently based in Paris, he is the Coordinator of the “International Network for Craft Development – RIDA” (www.ridanet.org) and Secretary General of the NGO “Culture of Origins” (www.culture-origins.org). He is the Editor of UNESCO’s Practical Guides – “Data Collection on Crafts”, “Participation in
International Craft Trade Fairs” and “Designers Meet Artisans”.
Joseph Lo holds a Ph.D. and his thesis was nominated for the 2015 annual award for outstanding research. His academic contribution has been to determine self-identified markers of authenticity in the work of artisans. In the last two decades, Dr. Lo has worked for numerous UN agencies in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, China-Tibet and Vietnam. Currently, Dr. Lo is a curator with Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He also sits on the Boards of Advisors for British Council’s Crafting Futures programmes in Southeast Asia and World Crafts Council Asia-Pacific Region
Anna Mignosa is a researcher at the University of Catania and at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focuses on cultural economics, specifically cultural heritage and cultural policies, the relationship between culture and development and the economics of craft. She is co-editor of the Handbook on the Economics of cultural heritage (Edward Elgar, 2013), the Economic analysis of craft (Palgrave, 2019) and Teaching cultural economics (Edward Elgar, 2020). Canon Foundation fellow and former member of the Board of the Association of Cultural Economics International (ACEI). Anna has extensive experience in teaching about cultural economics related topics, and is interested in the potential effect of research on society.s
