Isabel Raabe studied stage dance and, later on, cultural management in Berlin.
As a cultural producer she worked for various institutions in Berlin’s cultural scene, inter alia as a project coordinator for Büro Kopernikus – German Polish Cultural Projects, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
In 2007, she and Franziska Sauerbrey co-founded the independent büro für kulturelle angelegenheiten (“office for cultural affairs”) to curate and produce their own cultural projects, mostly in an international context.
They developed exhibitions, multimedia performances, and theatre festivals with, e.g., artists from Kosovo, Moldova and Ecuador.
First artistic involvements with and analyses of the cultures of Romani people followed.
In 2012, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma commissioned the büro für kulturelle angelegenheiten to oversee the programme accompanying the inauguration of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under the National Socialist Regime.
In 2014, Isabel Raabe and Franziska Sauerbrey produced an audio book about Zoni Weisz’s life (Ein gutes Leben. Zoni Weisz erzählt seine Biografie; Berlin: Vebrecherverlag, 2016).
After extensive research on the artistic and cultural self-presentation of the Romani people, Isabel Raabe and Franziska Sauerbrey initiated the project RomArchive – Digital Archive of the Roma.
See website for further information: isabelraabe.de