Sean Doran, Co-Creator/Producer ULYSSES European Odyssey (Ireland)
Seán Doran is an artistic producer, in international multi-arts festivals and events. His productions have spanned several countries and two continents in opera, literature, visual arts and the performing arts. Formerly the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2003-2006), he is currently Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Arts Over Borders (Ireland) and Co-Director of the ideas and programming consultancy DoranBrowne (London).
In the past decade, Seán Doran co-curated with his long-time artistic partner, Liam Browne, Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival (2017) delivering thirteen stand-out world premiere events to the 13 iconic album tracks (The Times accorded his Mark Morris Pepperland dance commission as the 2017 Show of the Year). In Ireland from 2012, he has founded the world’s exclusive multi-arts festivals celebrating Irish writers Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett (Happy Days), Brian Friel (Lughnasa FrielFest) and Oscar Wilde (A Wilde Weekend by Lough Ernest) and Northern Ireland’s first international multi-arts festivals since 1962.
As Artistic Director, Seán Doran curated both the largest and longest running multi-arts festivals in Ireland (Belfast, 1997 & 1998) and Australia (Perth, 2000-2003) and the largest ever literature festival staged in the world, the UK Year of Literature & Writing 1995. In 2001, the Australian Government awarded Seán its Centenary Medal and in 2017 Ulster University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts.
Liam Browne, Co-Creator/Producer, ULYSSES European Odyssey (Ireland)
Liam Browne was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. His first novel, The Emigrant’s Farewell, was published by Bloomsbury. He is a former Literature Officer at the South Bank Centre in London, Literature Programmer of the Brighton Festival and Programme Director of the International Literature Festival Dublin.
Under the arts consultancy, DoranBrowne, he conceived and co-curated, with Seán Doran, Sgt. Pepper at 50 Heading for Home (Liverpool, 2017), the first year of the new Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 12 months 12 books (Bellaghy, Co. Derry, 2016/2017) and The Shape of Things to Come in Folkestone (2019).
Gülen Güler, Artist, ULYSSES European Odyssey, Turkey
Gülen Güler, leveraging her background in Education, Sociology and Cultural Heritage Studies, founded “Yalan Dünya Films” in 2002, following a career in various educational capacities. As a visionary producer, she has cultivated a portfolio of contemporary video installation works, which have garnered international acclaim and been exhibited in prestigious museums worldwide. Notable among these achievements is her work “Küba,” which was honored with the distinguished Carnegie Prize. Her creative repertoire encompasses an array of award-winning feature films and documentaries, some of which were realized through collaborative partnerships with European Union countries. Her work also extended to television, where she produced a political satire series.
Under her leadership, Yalan Dünya Films has evolved into a dynamic cultural nexus, nurturing emerging artistic talent both domestically and internationally. The company serves as a curator of European cinema, orchestrating film screenings and cultural events throughout Turkey’s small towns, villages, and cultural institutions. As well as providing consultancy and support to grassroots film festivals and cultural initiatives across Turkey. Her emphasis to cross-cultural artistic exchange in her productions were further realized through her role as Istanbul’s city partner for Ulysses European Odyssey, an initiative supported by Creative Europe. She continues studying and writing children’s books.
