Voices on Dragan Klaić

Dragan Klaić

Dragan Klaic was a theater scholar and cultural analyst. He served as a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam and taught Arts and Cultural Policy at the University of Leiden. He lectured widely at the universities, speaking at conferences and symposia and serving as advisor, editor, columnist, researcher and trainer. His fields of engagement were contemporary performing arts, European cultural policies, strategies of cultural development and international cultural cooperation, interculturalism and cultural memory.

Educated in dramaturgy in Belgrade and with a doctorate in theater history and dramatic criticism from Yale University, Klaic worked as a theater critic and dramaturg, held professorships at the University of Arts Belgrade and University of Amsterdam, guest professorships in the USA, at the CEU Budapest and University of Bologna, led the Theater Instituut Nederland, co-founded the European Theater Quarterly Euromaske, and served as the President of the European Network of Information Centers for the Performing Arts and of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage. He was the Moderator of the Reflection Group of the European Cultural Foundation (2002-2004) and author of its final report Europe as a Cultural Project (Amsterdam: ECF 2005). He pursued his interests in transversality of culture by collaborating with the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the anti-alcoholism network Europocare and his exploration of Istanbul cultural constellation is available at www.labforcultue.org. He was the Chair of the European Festival Research Project.

Among his books several works were published in the former Yugoslavia before 1991, and also in the UK, USA, Netherlands and Norway. His articles and columns appeared in many periodicals in several languages. Klaic was a Contributing Editor of the Theater magazine (USA) and member of several advisory boards in Budapest, Brussels, Stockholm and The Hague.

Dragan passed away in August 2011.