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EUROPE REGIONAL COUNCIL

2026 Candidates for Election

Meet the candidates standing for election to the Europe Regional Council. Read each candidate's personal statement below.

Candidates declared elected unopposed

Meet the candidates

Select 'Read Statement' on any candidate to learn more.

Elisabeth Rosa Maria Noske
Freelance Artist and Writer
Independent Scholar
Germany

Read Statement

Henrike Gootjes
Author, Artist, Educator, Curator
Independent Scholar
The Netherlands

Read Statement

Rolf Laven
Professor, Art & Design Education
University College of Teacher Education, Vienna
Austria

Read Statement

Candidate statements are provided as submitted and have not been edited by InSEA. For questions about the election process please contact secretary@insea.org. 

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ART made of clay

At InSEA, we believe that art transforms people’s lives. 

Gifts in Wills are an important and crucial source of funding, providing lasting support which will help to safeguard InSEA’s ability to enrich more people’s lives now and in the future. Remember InSEA in your will

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Henrike Gootjes

Author, Artist, Educator, Curator
Independent Scholar • The Netherlands

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Henrike Gootjes — Artist, Researcher & Educator, the Netherlands We are at a pivotal moment in history. Ecological breakdown, social fracture, political upheaval, and AI are not background noise — they are the context in which we teach, make, and think. At this moment, art education is not a peripheral concern. It is one of the few spaces where being fully human remains possible, and where our relationship to a planet under threat can be honestly reckoned with.

I am nominating myself for the InSEA Europe Regional Council because I want to bring this conviction to bear on our collective work. I teach at art academies across the Netherlands and work as a guest lecturer in Belgium, Germany, France, and the UK. I presented at the InSEA World Congress in Malta and am a community member of Regenerative Arts Education. My book Regeneration: From Exhaustion to Life-Affirming Strategies (2025, second print; English edition July 2026) explores artistic, educational, political, and material strategies for responding to intertwined ecological, social, and cultural crisis — drawing on long-term, art- and place-based research in Ukraine, Northern Ireland, Australia, and Jordan.

If elected, I would work to ensure the ERC becomes a genuine platform: one that amplifies voices from peripheral and transitional contexts, fosters cross-border collaboration, and advocates for art education as a regenerative and relational practice within Europe — in connection with our global network. I would actively pursue partnerships through EU frameworks in culture, sustainability, and citizenship, with an emphasis on hands-on, applicable knowledge that is useful for our members. This is not a moment for modest ambitions. I would be honoured to serve the ERC and its members in rising to meet it.

Rolf Laven

Professor, Art & Design Education
University College of Teacher Education, Vienna • Austria

PERSONAL STATEMENT

As an artist, educator, and researching Professor of Art & Design Education in Vienna, I work across teacher education and the arts. Over many years, InSEA has been an important professional and personal home for me – a space of exchange, inspiration, and friendship across cultures. Since 2023, I have been actively involved in the InSEA World Council Europe as part of the Network & Advocacy Group, which has further strengthened my commitment to the organisation. My work connects art, education, and society through approaches such as service-learning, visual literacy, diversity, STE[A+]M, and social sculpture, always with the aim of empowering people and communities through creative practice. In addition to my academic role, I have been Chair of the Austrian Art and Design Association (BÖKWE) since 2016, where I advocate for cultural policy development, creative spaces, professional growth, and access to the arts in diverse educational and social contexts.

I would like to serve on the Europe Regional Council because I strongly believe in the importance of connection – between people, regions, ideas, and practices. Europe holds an incredible diversity of perspectives in art education, yet these voices are not always equally visible or connected. If elected, I would work to strengthen communication within the region, support exchange and collaboration across borders, and encourage especially early-career educators and researchers to engage with InSEA. For me, InSEA is not only an organisation, but a community. I would be honoured to help shape it as an inclusive, engaged, and future-oriented network – building bridges through art education.

Elisabeth Rosa Maria Noske

Freelance Artist and Writer
Independent Scholar • Germany

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Education through, in, and with the arts has shaped my vision and way of life for many years in Munich, Germany. Art education is a powerful resource for lifelong learning, democratic participation, empathy, creativity, research, responsibility, and both personal and social aesthetic empowerment. I have developed a body of work that promotes a new transdisciplinary approach to art education for children in kindergarten and school, as well as for families, seniors, and students. My professional experience includes work in television, broadcasting, print production, media design, secondary school teaching, university teaching (online throughout Germany), and leading guided tours and workshops in art museums and galleries.

I would be pleased to support INSEA through my knowledge, network, artistic and educational expertise, and new ideas for art education in Europe. In a complex and interconnected world, we need people who will help create more humanistic, fair, and peaceful conditions for life. Art education can help us find a balance between individuality and the common good. In this time of crisis, we need to exchange theories, methods, and personal experiences so that we can support one another across Europe and worldwide. As a part-time pensionist) I write art articles and a book about “Ästhetische Bildung” / art education, support aesthetic education and art advice in direct contact to arts institutions in Munich. I now have more time to actively contribute to and encourage INSEA Europe. With best regards, Elisabeth

Chihiro Tetsuka

Art Education Professor
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo • Japan

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I teach art education in a teacher-training program at a university in Japan. My recent research explores inquiry processes and the forms of knowledge developed through arts-based learning, particularly from the perspectives of Arts-Based Research and learning environment design. My first presentation at an InSEA conference was at the Osaka Congress in 2008. Since then, I have continued to value intercultural dialogue and collaborative learning through art education. I have also organized workshops at InSEA regional and international conferences using traditional Japanese art and culture as media for intercultural understanding. Through these experiences, I have witnessed participants from diverse cultural backgrounds share their perspectives with openness and humor, while collaboratively creating new cultural meanings together.

These experiences strengthened my belief in the vision expressed in the InSEA Manifesto (2018): that visual arts education can offer learners of all ages, cultures, and ethnicities multiple perspectives for understanding the world and foster imagination for identifying and addressing social issues. In response to the InSEA “Vision 2050: Futures of Education,” I hope to contribute, together with fellow members, to improving accessibility to art education across the Asian region and promoting well-being through art education. I also hope to help create opportunities for dialogue where members can respectfully share cultural diversity, discuss local and global challenges, and collaboratively explore meaningful solutions.