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Salzburg Global Seminar is to wish a fond “so long, farewell” to its long-serving Program Director for Culture and the Arts, Susanna Seidl-Fox after 26 years of extraordinary service.
Seidl-Fox joined Salzburg Global Seminar as a Program Director in 1995, and has led over 60 programs, including the long-running series on Culture, Arts and Society and the Cultural Innovators Forum.
“Susi’s leadership has driven the development of our internationally renowned programs on culture and the arts and of an unsurpassed global network of people and institutions at the cutting edge of creative curation and expression,” said Salzburg Global Seminar President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen L. Salyer.
Seidl-Fox has played a range of roles during her decades-long tenure including Academic Program Coordinator, Director of Program Development, Director of Seminars, and latterly, Program Director for Culture and the Arts. For several years, Seidl-Fox also served as a member of the Salzburg Management Committee, overseeing the operations and strategy of the organization.
“Susi’s always thoughtful, forward-looking perspective has helped Salzburg Global steer though times of challenge and of triumph,” added Salyer.
For the past 12 years as Program Director for Culture and the Arts, Seidl-Fox has led the annual program of the Edward T. Cone Foundation-supported Culture, Arts, and Society series. With Fellows and partners from across the globe, these programs have tackled issues ranging from conflict transformation through culture, the arts as a catalyst for sustainable development, and the expansion of international cultural engagement. All programs in the series are rooted in the firm belief that the arts and culture can have a profound, positive and transformative impact on our societies.
“There are too many highlights from my time at Salzburg Global to list here,” reflects Seidl-Fox. “However, helping to put the transformative power of the arts at the center of our work has been significant. We explored how and why the arts are essential to our lives and societies. The arts are not peripheral or just nice to have; they are a must-have.”
In 2014, Seidl-Fox was the pioneering force behind the Salzburg Global’s Cultural Innovators Forum and the creation of “hubs” in cities in more than 20 cities and regions around the world. The Cultural Innovators network continues to drive an organization-wide strategy to connect local innovators to global networks and resources, with Seidl-Fox having passed the baton to Associate Program Director Faye Hobson.
“The depth and quality of the work that Susi has led at Salzburg Global is a testament to her passion for the cultural sector and her belief in the arts as vital to shaping a better world. I have been honored to learn from and collaborate with her over the last five years and I am excited to take this work forward in the years to come,” said Hobson.
Long a cross-cultural connector, before coming to Salzburg, Seidl-Fox worked for eight years as a simultaneous interpreter for the U.S. Department of State, contracting primarily for its International Visitor Leadership Program. She also worked in publishing for two years in New York. Her love of culture and the arts and interest in international cultural relations were nurtured through her studies of German literature, theater, and government at universities in the US, France, and as a Fulbright scholar in Germany. It was in Salzburg where she met her husband, Herman Seidl, curator at the FOTOHOF, a center for contemporary photography in Salzburg, lecturer in the Multi-Media-Art department of the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg, and long a familiar face at Salzburg Global programs where he regularly serves as a program and event photographer.
Seidl-Fox now looks forward to trying to learn Greek, taking up metalsmithing again, cooking, walking, volunteering, studying archeology, and continuing to be an advocate for the cultural sector.
“On behalf of the thousands of Fellows, colleagues, and friends whose lives she has touched, we join in saluting Susi for her remarkable ideas, for her unstinting encouragement, and for programs that will continue to influence the work of countless creative people and institutions across the world,” said Salyer in tribute.
Seidl-Fox will conclude her tenure with Salzburg Global Seminar by leading a fitting final program in November 2021, The Creative Power of the Arts: Reimagining Human and Planetary Flourishing.