EWA – Empowering Women in the Arts is a cross-disciplinary mentoring and networking program for women* working in the cultural sector. EWA supports women* in their professional development, particularly on their path towards leadership positions in the arts, culture, and creative industries. The program combines mentoring, knowledge sharing, community building, and cultural policy perspectives.
Women* remain underrepresented in strategic and operational leadership positions across the cultural sector. At the same time, structural inequalities persist in terms of visibility, pay, work-life balance, access to networks, and decision-making power. EWA creates spaces for exchange, empowerment, and mutual support, while advocating for a fairer and more diverse cultural landscape.
EWA works through mentoring tandems, workshops, gatherings, and networking formats. Experienced female mentors accompany mentees over several months, supporting them with personal and professional questions and challenges. In addition, Skill-Ups! provide knowledge and practical tools around leadership, self-positioning, diversity, power structures, and collaborative ways of working. EWA understands learning as a collective and intersectional process.
EWA empowers women* to strengthen their visibility, agency, and leadership within the cultural sector. The program fosters new networks, sustainable professional perspectives, and supportive, collaborative ways of working. In the long term, EWA advocates for structural change in the cultural sector — promoting greater gender equity, diverse models of leadership, and inclusive working cultures.
EWA is aimed at women* with several years of professional experience in the arts, culture, or creative industries who want to develop their practice, take on greater responsibility, or shape leadership roles. EWA understands leadership in a broad sense — whether institutional, collective, artistic, or self-organized.
EWA stands for empowerment, solidarity, knowledge sharing, and feminist leadership practices. The program understands diversity as a strength and advocates for a cultural landscape in which different perspectives, lived experiences, and ways of working are visible, valued, and able to shape the sector.
The Advisory Board supports EWA as a strategic and advisory body. It brings together leading figures from the fields of culture, funding, academia, media, and cultural policy who are committed to gender equality, diversity, and sustainable change in the cultural sector. The Advisory Board contributes expertise, experience, networks, and cultural policy perspectives, helping to ensure the quality of the program and supporting its ongoing development.
The EWA team is responsible for the conception, organization, and implementation of the program. Together, the team develops the program’s content and formats, supports mentors and mentees, and shapes EWA’s strategic development. The team’s work is grounded in feminist, collaborative, and intersectional approaches, with a shared commitment to creating new spaces for exchange, empowerment, and leadership in the cultural sector.
Lea Moro, Rahel Leupin - Project Lead
Julia Keren Turbahn - Communication
Juliana Simonetti - Administration
The Board of Directors supports EWA’s long-term development at an organizational and structural level. It contributes to the strategic direction of the association, strengthens its sustainable foundation, and advocates for the visibility and continuation of EWA. Together with the team and the Advisory Board, the Board helps advance EWA’s vision of a fairer and more diverse cultural landscape.
EWA was founded by Lea Moro and Rahel Leupin.
