AEA is pleased to share the recent appointments of three new team members: Antoni Durski, Emily Harney, and Mayssa Kanaan!

Antoni Durski is rejoining AEA as a Senior Consultant, currently based in Berlin. Antoni now has a decade of experience deploying business strategy and data-driven insight to support growth in the arts, culture, and entertainment sectors. He began his career at AEA from 2014 to 2018, where he managed strategic projects and led analytical work for the arts and culture clients in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Among other projects, he led financial modeling for a feasibility study for Haus der Kunst in Munich; spearheaded a research study on the impact of “live-to-digital” technology on the theatre sector for Arts Council England; worked with Huntington Theatre Company on the development of a business plan for the organization as it planned a new facility, and assisted in the creation of a strategic plan for the Stephen Petronio Company.

Between 2018 and his recent reappointment, Antoni has held research and strategy roles at AEG - where he was charged with leading market research for the firm’s flagship live music properties including The O2 (London), AccorHotels Arena (Paris), Barclaycard Arena (Hamburg), Mercedes Platz (Berlin), and British Summer Time Hyde Park music festival - as well as music platform SoundCloud.

Antoni received a B.A. in theatre and digital arts from the University of Kent, an M.A. in cultural policy from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and is currently completing an MBA in Business Innovation at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. He has a particular interest in the intersection of culture, technology and entrepreneurship.

Emily Harney joins AEA’s team as a Senior Associate. Emily has over 15 years of leadership experience in the non-profit arts sector, with broad expertise across areas of strategy, planning and assessment; facilitation for cross-functional and interdisciplinary collaboration among diverse stakeholders; partnership and community engagement; organizational design and learning; and internal and external communications.

Most recently, Emily served as the Senior Vice President, Programming & Strategy at BRIC in Brooklyn, NY, whose work spans contemporary visual and performing arts, media and civic action. At BRIC she led diverse, interdisciplinary teams to create and deliver programs and initiatives that expanded opportunity and deepened service to artists and local communities. Prior to BRIC, she was Director of Community Engagement and Marketing at MAPP International Productions, a unique creative producing company that supports artists in the development, production and touring of innovative new work.

Emily holds an M.A. in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University and a B.A. in Performance Studies from Bryn Mawr College and was a dancer in her early life.

Mayssa Kanaan joins AEA's team as a Consultant based in Dubai, with a focus on our Middle East portfolio. She brings experience in cultural strategy development, qualitative and quantitative research and project management.

Prior to AEA, Mayssa's consultancy projects primarily covered the culture sector in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, such as in-depth mapping of the cultural sector of the Emirate of Dubai, and leading research and development of visual guidelines for a giga-project in KSA. She has held positions with design studios in the region and in Europe, as well as consulting firms in France, UK and UAE.

She holds a BA in Landscape Architecture from the American University of Beirut and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice for the Public Sphere from the Royal College of Art in London.