HANSEartWORKS

During the delegation meeting of the International Hanseatic Days in Osnabrück in 2006, Marion Streitner (Doesburg, Netherlands) forwarded a far-reaching proposition: she requested the participation of the visual arts to be a constant part of planning the programme for all following festivals. The request was accepted in unison.
This was the beginning of a successful and outstanding Hanseatic network: Lippstadt, being the next town to host the International Hanseatic days in 2007, had already developed a concept to carry out  the idea of HANSEartWORKS (which was then called the HANSE Art-project).
The dedication of Mrs. Streitner and the decision of the delegates led to the implementation of the project not only in Lippstadt but also in Salzwedel, Nowgorod and Pärnu.
It is thanks to Marion Steitner that Jan Hoet became our adviser: Dr. Jan Hoet was director of S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art - Städtisches Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst) in Gent and founding director of the MARTa Museum in the Hanseatic town of Herford (Germany.) 

Since 2007 there is a very motivated project group called the "HANSEart". Alfred Wübbena (Osnabrück), Hans Molzberger (Salzwedel) and Carmen Harms (Lippstadt) are supervising the projects and will be involved in all following HANSEartWORKS projects.