Elise Bernhardt - Floral designer and executive search and rescue.
- Isobel Arden
- Sep 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 1
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Meet Elise Bernhardt.
In this interview, Mark invited Elise to create her own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy her journey below.
Elise Bernhardt has never been one to stay in just one lane. A cultural entrepreneur, non-profit leader, and floral designer, she has built a career that moves as gracefully as the flowers she arranges.
For more than three decades, Elise was a driving force in the arts world. She founded Dancing in the Streets, served as CEO of The Kitchen, and later helmed the Foundation for Jewish Culture. In each role, she proved that she could not only keep the lights on but also inspire artists, audiences, and funders alike with bold vision and no-nonsense leadership.
In 2018, Elise traded boardrooms for blooms and founded Fleur Elise Bkln. Her floral creations, often inspired by Japanese Ikebana, are equal parts sculpture and storytelling — arrangements that twist, leap, and balance like dancers mid-performance. She has been known to say that flowers have their own choreography, and her designs bring that philosophy to life with wit, elegance, and just a dash of rebellion against “standard” bouquets.
Never content with flowers simply looking pretty in a vase, Elise has expanded Fleur Elise Bkln into the world of corporate team-building.
Her workshops are as much about collaboration as they are about petals and stems. Companies such as Magic Spoon and Jacadi N.A. have praised her sessions for transforming teams from “colleagues who exchange emails” into “colleagues who actually enjoy each other’s company.”
What makes Elise Bernhardt unique is the way she connects her past and present: the discipline of nonprofit leadership, the playfulness of performance art, and the beauty of natural design. Whether she’s arranging a table centrepiece or reshaping an organisation, Elise brings the same qualities — vision, creativity, and a wry sense of humour that keeps everyone on their toes.
Elise's Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
🍸 Fantasy Cultural Year Begins
Elise set the stage for her fantasy cultural year unlike any other: no single discipline, no neat categories. Instead, she pictured herself moving fluidly between worlds — one night in the hush of a chamber music hall, the next in a warehouse buzzing with avant-garde performance. Art wasn’t something to consume; it was a rhythm running through daily life, punctuated by meals that were as much culture as concerts.
🎨 The Mix of Moments
Her calendar danced with contrasts:
A chamber quartet in an intimate, candlelit venue.
A bold piece of visual art that challenged perspective.
Dance performances in outdoor spaces, moving with the seasons.
A taste of avant-garde theatre that left more questions than answers.
Even food folded in as ritual and artistry, linking body and mind.
🌍 Not Either/Or, But Both
When asked to choose between “high culture” and “everyday culture,” Elise refused the premise. Her fantasy wasn’t about division. It was about building bridges: Michelin-starred meals alongside street food festivals, experimental soundscapes following a night at the opera. Everything belonged, if placed in the right sequence.
💫 Culture Without Categories
The through-line wasn’t hierarchy but connection. Each choice spoke to another — chamber music resonating with the discipline of ikebana, bold visual art echoing through contemporary dance. Culture wasn’t a checklist, but a choreography of experiences.
✨ The Bigger Choice
What Elise was really choosing was freedom — the freedom to reinvent, to cross-pollinate, to say yes to both the classical and the contemporary. Her fantasy year was less about consumption and more about transformation: how a person changes when they refuse to stay in just one lane.
Explore more about Elise below
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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