Jan Lothe Eriksen 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 as cellist with the Sami artist Torgeir Vassvik, and serves as board member of the international network organization SH|FT – Safe Havens Freedom Talks.