our team

Chris Belloni

Founding Director

Is the director and initiator of Stichting Art. 1 and the International Queer & Migrant Film Festival. He studied European Studies and in 2011 he founded the Stichting art.1, aiming to create films and documentaries about taboo subjects. His films have been screened at more than 140 international film festivals, in secondary schools and at Dutch embassies worldwide. As a filmmaker he directed several films, including the award-winning documentary I Am Gay and Muslim and the Turkish Boat. He has set up film / LGBT projects in various countries such as Japan, Pakistan, Argentina, Suriname, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey, often with financial support from Dutch Embassies. His current projects focus on training and workshops for human rights activists, journalists and LGBT / gender equality activists and strengthening artivism in various countries in and around the EU. Chris Belloni was further nominated as Amsterdammer of the year 2020. In 2022 he launched Supernova Cinema, the alternative cinema space in the center of Amsterdam. He did his jury duty in several film festivals among them Berlinale’s Teddy Award (2020), PriFest (2021), St Petersburg Side by Side LGBT Film Festival (2021), Humans of Film Festival (2022).

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Antonij Karadzoski

Project Manager & Trainer

Antonij holds a degree in Architecture and Engineering, but after fleeing his native country, North Macedonia, due to homophobia; he is now dedicated to human rights/LGBTIQ+ rights, becoming an artivist and artivism trainer, using the method of art to break down stereotypes and discrimination. His first artivism campaign, “Culture of Humiliation”, aimed to raise awareness on bullying and cyber-bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity. After having a successful exhibition in Slovenia, Antonij was invited to present his work for the International Queer & Migrant Film Festival in Amsterdam, where in 2018 he was awarded with the Human Rights Award of IQMF for his inspiring work and story. Since then he has been the producer of the festival and has assisted with curation and production of queer films for multiple Queer Film Festivals. He continues to do so alongside Queer Festival Haarlem where he is the main producer of the film festival program.

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Galo de la Huerta

Head of International Partnerships & Cooperation

Galo is a writer, editor and storyteller. He studied Business and Marketing in Chile (2015), Storytelling in Cuba (2017), Storytelling Facilitation in Palestine (2018), and holds a dual Masters in Heritage and Memory from the University of Amsterdam (2019). In 2022 he completed a diploma in EU Project Design and Management. Galo’s academic and work paths have been shaped by the intangibility of words, stories and how they affect reality. His interests are social narratives and belonging, identity and diversity, and the use of storytelling to infiltrate and influence mainstream narratives and collective identities. Galo joined Stichting art 1. as an intern in 2018 and has since stayed on as writer, editor, storytelling trainer and currently Head of International Partnerships and cooperation.

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Saleem Salameh

Trainer

Saleem is a filmmaker, writer and photographer. His work engages with moments in everyday life while exploring questions around gender, social restrictions and interpersonal relationships. His short film “12 Centimeters” won the jury prize in the Franco-Arab Film Festival in Jordan in 2015. His experimental film “Button” was screened at The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts and during Ephemeral Spaces exhibition in Vienna in 2017. In 2018, his experimental film “Postcards” was screened at ROFFA Film Club in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Saleem is one of Stichting art.1’s soft skill methodology trainers, specifically in filmmaking for the “Youth Artivists for Change” project and “Artivists for Social Change – Suriname” project (2019-2021) and Artivist Stafete (2021-2023).

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MADDI DETHLEFSEN

CONTENT WRITER & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Maddi is an aspiring writer, podcaster and spoken word artist who joined Stichting art.1 in 2023. Born & raised in northern Germany, she moved to The Netherlands to study Media Management in Breda (2018) and Film Studies in Amsterdam (2021) to pursue her passion for creative self-expression through audiovisual media and spoken word. She has taken on projects as an Artivist, Community Manager and Content Writer both for personal projects as well as for Stichting Art.1 ever since. Her core passions include intersectional feminism, navigating young adulthood, slam poetry and independent cinema.

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Rick Busscher

Project Manager

Rick is Project Manager for the Queer Network Amsterdam, having joined Stichting art.1 in 2021. Since then Rick has been the main focal point for the organization’s national advocacy branch, likewise participating in the Rainbow Coalition of Gemeente Haarlem Next to Queer Network Amsterdam. They work on behalf of Stichting art.1 for Queer Amsterdam – the organizer of the new Queer Pride Week in the Dutch capital. Rick graduated in 2022 with a master’s degree ‘DAS Creative Producing’ and specialized in the world beyond the binary, with an emphasis on consent culture. They also hold a degree in Performance Arts Production (2018). Rick works as a coordinator of production at DutchCulture since 2017, as a member of the mime collective Rotor Performance, and since 2022 as a business producer at the What You See festival. They are part of the monitoring committee of the Council for Culture.

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Kim Tawjoeram

Trainer

Kim works as a freelancer for Stichting Art. 1 as a marketeer, dancer, coach and a programmer for IQMF. Kim is working on several training modules on diversity and inclusion on the work space.

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Shayne McCreadie

TRAINER

Shayne McCreadie was born and raised in Amsterdam and currently works as a cultural programmer and organisational coach. She has founded De Cultuurshifters, which focuses on supporting companies to incorporate diversity and inclusion into their workplace. She enjoys working with teams and team leaders, teaching them the foundations of Deep Democracy. She also teaches creative workshops and curates special programs for the International Queer & Migrant Film festival.

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TESS DRONKERS

INTERN

Tess was born and raised in Rotterdam and is currently graduating as an event producer from the theatre school. They are passionate about working for and with the queer community and often visit drag shows in their free time. Besides that they also enjoy going on adventures with their best friends and have a passion for theatre. Currently, Tess works as an intern for Stichting art.1 and takes on a variety of different tasks.

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STICHTING ART.1

Artivism: Activism through the Arts