Ritva Mitchell. 1947-2022. Former programme adviser at the Council of Europe and colleague for four years.

 

Photo Cupore courtesy

When looking for archives, you can find bad news from friends. I was in search of reports regarding the analysis of the cultural policy of various european countries when the name of Ritva Mitchell came to my mind.

We were invited to Strasbourg as programme adviser at the same period between 1992 and 1996.

She brought her expertise for this useful and original scheme devoted to the analysis of national cultural policies. The exercise confronted national government analysis to independent expert's ones.

A very useful programme which needed a "private cultural ingenior's" experience. 

During these years the Cultural Fund was used to invite persons coming from private or public bodies to reinforce the Secretariat of the Directorate for Education, Culture and Sport. A happy situation that I enjoyed to share concepts and case studies, in the same building, with brillant spanish, french and finish colleagues. 

Ritva was a delicious and helpful personality.

When the Fund was to close for a lack of funding, at the end of the current year, Vera Boltho, our common Department Manager and for sure in agreement with Raymond Weber, the Director in charge, decided not to choose between Ritva and myself. 

We had to share half a year, closing both contracts end of June.

I was prepared to that situation since two years and I closely co-operated with Georges Calteux, Head of Sites and Monuments and Guy Dockendorf General Director for Culture for launching a body that could operate and manage the Cultural Routes Programme in Luxembourg through a bilateral agreement between the Council of Europe and Luxembourg Government.

And Ritva came back to Finland where she pursued a brillant mission that the Compendium clearly summurizes :

 

The Compendium community commemorates an outstanding personality and colleague.

"With great sadness and dismay we have to announce that our friend and colleague Ritva Mitchell passed away on Wednesday the 6th July 2022.

During the last 40 years, Ritva has undoubtedly been one of the most influential actors in European cultural cooperation and related research and documentation projects, including as regards the Compendium of Cultural Policies & Trends, whose development she has significantly shaped since 1998.

She brought her outstanding skills in conceptual planning, research and the communication of results to fruition in numerous research and consultancy projects, e.g., for the European Union, UNESCO or the Council of Europe; for the latter she worked for five years as a consultant on site in Strasbourg, for development cooperation organisations later also in Asia and Africa.

Throughout her career, she performed in crucial positions for academic institutions and cultural policy in Finland and other Nordic countries, including from 2003 until her retirement as Director of Research for the CUPORE Institute of the Foundation for Cultural Policy Research in Helsinki. She was also involved in university teaching and particularly promoted the development of junior talents for cultural research. Numerous academic publications and conference papers attest to her innovative view of problems as well as opportunities for culture in Finland, Europe and the world (cf. a summary overview here).

The Compendium experts community as well as the ERICarts Network and Institute will never forget Ritva, her special, often challenging personality and her great achievements for an emerging European cultural space.

Thank you Ritva for several beautiful moments you gave us and shared with us…we will miss you."

I miss her too.