
Mária Tajtáková
Mária Tajtáková (Assoc. Prof., Ing., PhD.) is a leading Slovak expert in arts marketing and audience development. Her expertize encompasses also the field of cultural tourism, culture-led urban and regional development, and cultural sustainability. She graduated from the University of Economics in Bratislava and the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia). She did her PhD. in arts marketing (2005) and she was promoted to associate professor based on her works on audience development strategies in the performing arts (2009). Currently she works in the field of culture as a researcher, instructor, manager and active performer. She is associate professor at the School of Management/City University of Seattle in Slovakia. Besides, she is manager of non-for-profit organisation ARS IUVENTUTIS dealing with research studies within culture and the career development of young artists. Since 2015, she has been member of the European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA), in the framework of which she was involved in studies on funding mechanism in the music industry, sustainable cultural tourism, European Youth Orchestra assessment, and institutional tools available to cultural heritage sites for achieving sustainable tourism. She is also experienced with European projects, namely as project manager of the EU project KULT-TOUR CENTRE (Interreg IIIA) intended to enhance cross-border cultural tourism between Slovakia and Austria, and as evaluator (member of the international evaluation team) within the ex-post evaluation of the EU project European Capital of Culture – Košice 2013. Prior to her current position she worked as marketing manager of Opera and Ballet of the Slovak National Theatre, consultant of the Slovak Ministry of Culture and senior researcher at the National Centre for European and Global Studies of the Slovak republic. She was also an associate of the International Centre for Culture & Management in Salzburg, Austria. Within her professional practice she lead numerous market research projects and studies that served as a basis for designing concrete actions in several cultural institutions in Slovakia.