Christiana van Osenbrüggen
Dipl.-Geographer · Cultural Manager
Culture opens spaces for experience, debate and new perspectives. For me, this is where its intrinsic value lies. Since studying geography, I have also been interested in the role culture can play in the development of cities, regions and societies.
My diploma thesis on the Ruhrtriennale examined the long-term effects of a major cultural project on cities, the region and society. The relationship between culture and development has remained a central question throughout my professional work.
Over more than twenty years, I have experienced culture from different perspectives: in production and festivals, in the independent arts, in the cultural and creative industries and culture-led urban development, in public cultural organisations and in European cooperation.
Culture in practice
My professional work began at the Ruhrtriennale and continued with festivals and projects in the independent performing arts. I worked with artists and productions, developed and organised projects, supported communication and cooperation, and became familiar with different structures of cultural work.
These years continue to shape how I understand culture. Artistic work needs freedom as well as reliable conditions: funding, places, professional structures and institutions that enable cultural work.
RUHRTRIENNALE · FAVORITEN · OFF LIMITS · TANZ NRW · POTTFICTION · INDEPENDENT PERFORMING ARTS
Culture, cities and regions
In Gelsenkirchen, I was able to pursue the question from my studies in practice over many years: What role can culture and the creative industries play in the development of a neighbourhood and a city? And what do artists and creative professionals need to work there, develop their practice and initiate their own projects?
On behalf of the City of Gelsenkirchen’s Department of Culture, I developed and managed 14 national and European projects over seven years, covering cultural development, cultural and creative industries, neighbourhood development and internationalisation.
This work included the development of Kreativ.Quartier Ückendorf, the repositioning of Halfmannshof, qualification and residency programmes, new places to work, and cooperation with universities, cultural institutions and international partners.
KREATIV.QUARTIER ÜCKENDORF · HALFMANNSHOF · FUTUREWORK / CO.LABORATORIUM · NEXT LEVEL CAMPUS · BOCHUMER STRASSE SPRICHT · CO.CREATION RESIDENCY RUHR
Europe as a space for learning
European cooperation became an integral part of my work through my projects in Gelsenkirchen. What interests me most is the opportunity to bring different experiences, ways of working and local contexts into exchange and to learn from one another.
European programmes provide a concrete framework for this. I have developed international partnerships and funded projects and worked with municipalities, cultural organisations, universities, creative professionals and European networks — from the initial idea and partnership building to funding applications and implementation.
ICCI focused on the internationalisation of the cultural and creative industries. Through EXCITE / EXCITE 2.0, I worked within Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. C-CHANGE / URBACT brought European cities together around questions of culture, art and climate action.
ICCI · EXCITE / EXCITE 2.0 · C-CHANGE / URBACT · ERASMUS FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Cultural administration and organisations
At the NRW KULTURsekretariat, the organisation itself became a stronger focus of my work.
As Head of Administration and later Deputy Managing Director, I was responsible for finance, personnel, funding administration and central organisational processes. At the same time, I contributed to the transformation of the NRW KULTURsekretariat into an independent municipal special-purpose association.
This involved developing new administrative, financial, governance and decision-making structures while maintaining ongoing operations and working with member municipalities, political bodies and cultural institutions.
This experience broadened my perspective on cultural development: ideas, programmes and funding need organisations capable of carrying them professionally, financially and administratively.
Today, I lead GREENSTAGE at Theater Oberhausen, a European cooperation project that I developed and secured funding for through Creative Europe. It connects European cooperation between cultural organisations and municipalities with questions of sustainability, organisational development and cultural policy.
NRW KULTURsekretariat · GREENSTAGE · CREATIVE EUROPE
Returning to the question of development
More than twenty years after my diploma thesis, I returned to a question that was already there at the beginning of my professional path: How does development happen — and what do places, organisations and people need for new possibilities to emerge?
In 2026, I completed the Executive Certificate Economic Complexity & Innovation Policy at the Toulouse School of Economics. Engaging with innovation policy, economic complexity and capabilities gave me a new perspective on many of my experiences in cultural and urban development.
César A. Hidalgo ↗ · Center for Collective Learning ↗
Innovation becomes possible where knowledge and capabilities exist, develop and can be combined in new ways. For my own work, this raises a practical question: how can cultural policy, cultural organisations and public institutions strengthen these capabilities and provide the conditions for cooperation, learning and development?
In this sense, I have returned to where I started: from examining the effects of the Ruhrtriennale on a city and region, through more than two decades of cultural and institutional practice, back to the question of how development happens — and how the conditions for it can be shaped.
Culture. Transformation. European cooperation.
CVANO is my independent project office, bringing together the experience and questions that have shaped my professional work: cultural and urban development, public cultural organisations, European cooperation, and the development and implementation of complex projects.
My work starts with the specific context, the people and institutions involved, and the structures, resources, capabilities and partnerships a project needs.