Jan Lothe Eriksen (1954) is a Norwegian cultural entrepreneur and former musician, the initiator and first director of Safemuse – Safe Havens for Artists, and initiator and first director of Riksscenen – National Venue for Traditional Music and Dance. He is educated at the Rogaland Conservatory of Music, is a former cellist in the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, vice president of the Norwegian Musicians’ Union (now Creo), and general manager of the Norwegian Traditional Music and Dance Association (NFD, now FolkOrg). He has also for a period worked and toured as cellist with the Sami artist Torgeir Vassvik. He is cofounder of the reestablished international network organization SH|FT – Safe Havens Freedom Talks and serves as board member. He is also, for the time being, board member of the two Norwegian organizations Masahat for Arabic Culture in Exile and Samspill International Music Network. Jan have followed Freemuse since the very start, and developed Safemuse in close cooperation with Freemuse, as a supplementary organization to develop residencies and work opportunities for threatened and persecuted artists.