Retha-Louise Hofmeyr (neé Malherbe) has actively participated in the arts since her childhood. She studied piano with Joyce Cooper, Philip Levy, Joseph Stanford and Helena Moreira Sá e Costa, and was a member of the Pretoria Childrens Choir, the Transvaal Youth Choir, Ad Libitum and the SABC Choir. Her professional arts career started as ballet repetiteur for PACT.  In 1983 she moved to Namibia and worked as a music producer for the South West African Broadcasting Corporation, until she became a lecturer at the Academy for Tertiary Education. In 1990 she was appointed chairperson of the committee responsible for the music entertainment programme for Namibia’s Independence celebrations. She served as Director of Arts from 1990 until 2015 in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, and her directorate was responsible for the development of Namibia’s policy framework for arts education and the arts industry; the establishment and management of the Windhoek’s College of the Arts, the Katutura Community Arts Centre, the National Arts Extension Programme and the National Arts Council; and the generalmaintenance of the National Theatre of Namibia and the National Arts Gallery of Namibia. She served on the boards of the above-mentioned arts institutions and was vice-president of the Franco Namibian Culture Centre. Retha-Louise has been an invited speaker and jury-member at several international and national conferences, visual– and performing arts competitions and examination boards.  She has a BMus, UPLM and an MPhil in Entrepreneurship, and is the recipient of several scholarships and awards, including the Chevalier dans l’Ordre Palme Académique (2002) and Officier dans l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres (2015) from the French government.  She is an accomplished musician in various genres, and has broadcast and performed in Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Portugal, Austria, the USA and Italy.  She has conducted consultancies on trade and industry for UN agencies, and is currently a freelance musician with a focus on contemporary Namibian composition.