Gerhard Kowař is the new Director of KulturKontakt Austria

PRESS INFORMATION
Vienna, September 2008

As part of the strategic and organisational development of KulturKontakt Austria as a European centre of discourse and resources, Gerhard Kowař was appointed its new director on September 2008. Kowař, who has many years of professional experience with Austrian and international educational and cultural institutions, will play an important role in the further development of KulturKontakt Austria’s profile. The decision of the Board was made unanimously. KulturKontakt Austria’s new director, who succeeds Kurt Wagner, has been given a five-year contract.

KulturKontakt Austria works on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture in the following fields: cultural education at Austrian schools, cultural education for apprentices, arts sponsorship, and educational and cultural cooperation with Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

Brief Biography of Gerhard Kowař
Gerhard Kowař completed university studies in the education programme for upper secondary school teachers in the subjects German, history and introductory philosophy. He began his career in 1970 with the Austrian children’s welfare organisation Kinderfreunde. Later he taught at vocational schools and worked as a trainer for the Association of Viennese Adult Education Centres and at the Berufspädagogisches Institut in Mödling (a training institute for vocational education teachers) before engaging in activities as a lecturer and education specialist in the field of Austrian development cooperation. From 1991 to 1994 he was in charge of the newly established Coordination Office for Educational Cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe at the Federal Ministry for Education and Culture (now the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture).

In 1994 he assumed the position of Head of the Department of Educational Cooperation at KulturKontakt Austria, where he focused on the strategic positioning of the newly-created department in the Austrian and European context.

From 2000 to 2005 Kowař was head of a task unit within the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture in charge of the coordination of education cooperation with Eastern and South Eastern Europe, and Deputy Chair of the Task Force Education and Youth of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. From 2005 he worked as a consultant at the OECD (Paris) in the field of cooperation with non-member states, with a geographical focus on South Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China and the Russian Federation. His area of responsibility also included intensive cooperation with international organisations such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the European Commission (CRELL), IBE-UNESCO and the Inter American Development Bank.

Gerhard Kowař is a member of national and international groups of experts and the author of numerous publications on the subject of education.