Evi Swinnen

Evi Swinnen (1977) is passionate about arts and activism. Driven by a critical makers and hackers attitude towards ruling economical and social structures, she founded Timelab in 2008. Timelab hosted the first Fablab in Belgium in a dialogue with an international artists in residency program built upon the shoulders of the (New York) Timefestival, a City Festival founded in 1990 as a city wide collaboration between arts, academic world, social institutions and the City of Ghent.  She grew experience in communication, production and financial models in the arts before building the cross domain urban lab of TImelab. Since, she instigates projects and partnerships in experimenting with other models of working towards innovation, empowerment and social justice. She engages in business model innovation, urban projects and policy making and brings her expertise in economical and governance models to the arts world and artists. Educated in architecture, arts studies and management, she believes the most important lessons learned come through experiment and mutual admiration. She is a member of several think thanks and experts groups on policy and arts and has a seat in boards of cultural organisations and commissions. She received the Flanders Cultural award for entrepreneurship in 2017.