Community sustainability is viewed as encompassing and intertwining environmental, cultural, social, and economic sustainability and resiliency. This international event promotes knowledge development and exchanges of practice-led research on cultural and social dimensions of sustainable city-building, involving architects, theatre-makers, community artists, urban developers, researchers in many disciplines, and university teachers and students. These exchanges will be facilitated in two ways: (a) an international symposium in which participants share their experiences and insights and discuss the challenges of the work; and (b) two workshops in which artists/architects and researchers work together.

Geneva, 4 August 2011. Today CERN* launches its cultural policy for engaging with the arts. Called Great Arts for Great Science, this new cultural policy has a central strategy - a selection process for arts engagement at the level of one of the world's leading research organizations.

This puts CERNs engagement with the arts on a similar level as the excellence of its science, said Ariane Koek, CERN's cultural specialist.

CERNs newly appointed Cultural Board for the Arts will be the advisers and guardians of quality. It is made up of renowned cultural leaders in the arts from CERN's host-state countries: Beatrix Ruf, Director of the Kunsthalle Zurich; Serge Dorny, Director General of the Lyon Opera House; Franck Madlener, Director of the music institute IRCAM in Paris. Geneva and CERN are represented by Christoph Bollman of ArtbyGenève and Michael Doser, an antimatter scientist. Membership of the board is an honorary position that will change every three years.

@ Image: Simon Norfolk (UK) CERN series

It is no surprise that we have an immense and varied culture in the United States. Yet when it comes to the arts, there is no reason why a person with a visual disability must also be culturally disadvantaged. For communities to sustain their cultural vibrancy, they cannot afford to ignore any portion of the resources available within the community. In fact, too often people with disabilitiesespecially people who are blind or have low visionare not welcome in a community's cultural institutions simply because programs are not accessible in a meaningful way.

Tallinn is the European Capital of Culture in 2011. The present article is written in August while half of the year is over. Some summary how successful the Culture year has been and what kind of changes it has emerged can already be done. Though the real long-term effects of the year we can make after several years.

The planning and preparation that Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture in 2011 started already in 2005 and the process came through several phases. It started with the discussions and brainstorming of working groups where belonged officials from different city departments as well as art people. Those groups prepared also the official application to the European Commission. In 2007 an independent organization The Capital of Culture Foundation Tallinn2011 was founded by the City of Tallinn with the functions of preparing and coordination of execution of the program. The infrastructure projects were performed by different city departments or state institutions.

The expectations what kind of problems the process of Capital of Culture will solve were very different: artists and culture people hoped to fulfil their dreams and ideas that could not have done in "ordinary year", marketing people found that the most important aim is the rise of foreign tourists, city planners stressed the need for developing disused districts of the town, etc., etc.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Office of Research & Analysis will offer, for the first time, grant opportunities to researchers. The grants will support investigation of novel and significant research questions about the value and impact of the U.S. arts sector through the analysis of existing and/or newly established datasets. The NEA anticipates awarding roughly 25 grants, generally ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. At the end of the award period, grantees will submit a research report for posting on the NEA website.

According to a research conducted by Korea Arts Management Service and Korea Labor Institute in year 2008, professionals working at arts management get job satisfaction from psychological reward and high expectation about future prospects despite of their hard working conditions regarding long working hours, low income, poor welfare and services for employees, and conditions of employment .

Cellsbutton is the first media art festival in Indonesia which celebrates its 5th year. The organizer is House of Natural Fiber (HONF), Yogyakarta new media art laboratory, which was founded in 1999. Their main focus is artistic development and innovation of the arts. To achieve this goal, they strive to introduce new media art projects and workshops to the cultural environment of Yogyakarta. Every program is aimed at interactivity with the people and their social and cultural environment.This year´s Cellsbutton edition will be focused on the problematics of education in new technologies and their use in daily lives of ordinary people.The festival itself aims at creating a working and efficient platform for artistic exchange and collaboration.

The house of natural fiber, yogyakarta new media art laboratory, was founded in 1999. Our main focus is artistic development and innovation of the arts. We intend to achieve this goal especially by introducing new media art projects and workshops to the cultural environment of Yogyakarta. Every program is aimed at interactivity with the people and their social and cultural environment.

Thinking forward, positivity and creativity is the vision for our community. This vision is implemented in every program: we try to develop a symbiosis between art and technology. In our concept of the future of art and technology, the analysis of the specific role of technology within the arts in itself is crucial.

A new study by the Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC) at Teachers College Columbia University launched today at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, finds that aging artists are models for society especially as the workforce changes to accommodate multiple careers and baby boomers enter the retirement generation.

Evidence for this claim is provided in the first needs assessment of aging performing artists in the New York and Los Angeles metro areas now available in the RCAC report: STILL KICKING - Aging Performing Artists in NYC & LA Metro Areas: Information on Artists IV. The study is the first of its kind to understand how performing artistswho often reach artistic maturity and artistic satisfaction as they ageare supported and integrated within their communities, and how their network structures change over time. It complements the RCACs 2007 study of aging visual artists, published as ABOVE GROUND. The artists studied are actors, dancers, choreographers, musicians and singers.

Aging artists belie stereotypes: They are passionate about their work, and put the good news and bad news into it. They feel validated as artists and rank high in life satisfaction and self-esteem; 86% in NYC and 92% in LA would choose to be an artist again. Nor are aging artists isolated: More than half of them communicate daily or weekly with other artists, and more than half continue to be working artists and do not expect to retire until they are 90.

Australian arts audiences are using online resources to help shape and inspire their arts experience with 40% becoming aware of an arts event online, 75% using on line resources to research their event and 66% going on line after the event to share their experience.

Connecting:// arts audiences online, new research released today by the Australia Council for the Arts, demonstrates the use of online media at each stage of the audience journey from the point of first becoming aware of an the event, to attendance through to sharing their experience afterwards.

This year's Communicating the Museum conference is being held from 6th to 8th July in the elegant, creative and historic German city of Düsseldorf. Our theme this year is the Visitor Experience and the vital role it plays in building and retaining audiences. Leading international speakers and practitioners will present important and ground-breaking thoughts and ideas on:

* creating the very best experience for all visitors

* cutting edge visitor research from around the world

* generating income from visitors

* the dynamic and creative relationship between marketing and the visitor

experience - the unified tone of voice and customer service

* brand and the visitor experience

* interpretation and learning

* the future of the visitor experience - on-line and beyond

Following the tradition of engaging each year in a major policy debate, ENCATC, in close partnership with the Universiteit Antwerpen/Antwerp Management School, Master Cultuurmanagement will be organising this year in Brussels on the 7th of July 2011 the European debate Opportunities of crisis: Managing the impact of the financial crisis in Europe, designing innovative strategies and forecasting possible futures.

The purpose of this event is to debate what the crisis ultimately means for policy-makers, leaders and managers in the cultural sector. This policy debate is implemented in close partnership with the Universiteit Antwerpen/Antwerp Management School, Master Cultuurmanagement. It follows the ENCATC tradition of engaging each year in a major policy debate. The event is expected to gather about 50 participants, from Europe and beyond (AIMAC participants). It is meant for policy-makers, leaders and managers in the cultural sector, artists, academic, researchers and anyone interested in this topic.

Berlin. From the Bolshoi Theatre to stage technicians from Melbourne, from the Norwegian National Theatre to Korea to the USA: for three days, SHOWTECH became the international stage for the stages of the world, thus impressively emphasising its role as the worlds most important forum for the stage. Significant growth in the number of international trade visitors, a noticeable increase in the willingness to invest and the qualified dialogue between experts and colleagues from all over the world were the characteristics of this years SHOWTECH. SHOWTECH has further consolidated its position as the leading international meeting place for the industries it serves, said Hans-Joachim Erbel, Managing Director of SHOWTECH organiser Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH.

With a total of 7,520 visitors, SHOWTECH remained only just below its previous record (7, 813 in 2009). The trade show recorded a noticeable increase in visitors from abroad, with the share of international trade show visitors going up five percent to currently 32 percent. Here, the biggest growth was in the number of visitors from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. A total of 322 exhibitors presented the latest trends and innovations in stage and event technology at this years SHOWTECH. This years trade show demonstrated that the industry has left the crisis behind for good and is looking forward with realistic optimism, said SHOWTECH Event Director Markus Jessberger at the close of the trade show.

In the past fourteen years Musa Heritage Gallery shortened Mus'Art has been active in propagating the Nso' cultural heritage. The museum named in memory of Nso' carvers Daniel Kanjo Musa and his elder son John Yuniwo Musa has been at the forefront of promoting Nso traditional artistry and craftsmanship. This art and cultural institution by the Musa family opened her doors to the public on the 18th December, 1996. MusArt Gallery has a collection of over 400 objects most of which were created between 1970 and 2000. These varied and diverse objects range from bamboo work to wood carvings, basketry to pottery.

The museum continues to acquire contemporary Cameroonian arts and crafts while maintaining a major focus on the Western Grass-fields region. This region is internationally renowned for having produced masterpieces of African art. Unfortunately these objects were appropriated by colonial missionaries and officers and removed from their place of origin to museums in Europe or the United States of America. Masterpieces of Grass-fields art are today in foreign museums and it is most likely they will never be returned. The statue of Ngonnso founder the Nso kingdom is presently kept in a museum in Germany. In Nso there is an outcry for this statue to be returned to its people.

We are happy to inform you that the program schedule for the upcoming AIMAC Conference on the Management of Arts and Culture is online. From 3 to 6 July we will welcome about 200 academic researchers and professionals, specialists in the management of cultural organizations and creative industries. You can still participate, but inscriptions will close on June 20th!

The parallel sessions of the conference are devided in several thematic clusters: consumer behavior, strategic marketing, strategic management, organization and management, human resource management and cultural policies. The topics cover a broad array of subjects (creative city, product and brand management, governance and organizational behavior, leadership, heritage, performing arts, audiovisual media, social media, festivals,...).

This timely and thought-provoking book explains how museums can help shape public opinion towards a more sustainable future. The book also examines the practical steps museums and cultural organisations can take to reduce their carbon footprint.

With high levels of public trust and often playing a central role in communities, museums are the perfect organisations to engage the public and society at large in environmental issues. In an authoritative and influential publication highly-respected leading voices in the global greener museums movement explore how museums can rise to the challenge and make a difference by contributing to learning, raising awareness and greening their communities.

The world's premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show's multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.

62,500 people attended Art 41 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts.

The former director of Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender, one of the most famous Romanians in the world, Honorary Citizen of Timisoara, the city of his birth where he lived until the age of 24, was more then welcome by the municipality and all the citizens.

On the 20th of April, the mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu offered a diploma of "honorary ambassador for the support and promotion of Timisoara application for the title of European Cultural Capital."

Last year in Vienna thousands of people, including Austria's president and other key political leaders, gathered at the farewell concert organized in honor of Ioan Holender, who led the Vienna State Opera for 19 years, between 1st April 1992 and 30th August 2010 and was the longest in the history of the institution's directorate.

Back in the city of his birth, in the evening of 27th May, former director of the Vienna Opera was in the Opera Square both the film character and the spectator.

The two hundred seats brought to the center by the municipality were not enough for those who wanted to see the film "Holi", projected on a large screen, film which was made years ago by TVR Timisoara and Brândua Armanca, the director of Romanian Cultural Insitute from Budapesta. People were standing to hear the stories about the capital of Banat, about ... "the life and the miracles" of a legendary character, Ioan Holender itself. At the end of the film, he brought his wife and two children, Alan and Alina, in front of the people applausing. The evening continued with sequences from the maestro's farewell concert, organized in Vienna in June last year. "I invite you all tomorrow night at the Philharmonic concert. All tickets were sold, but we will handle it, said "Holi" to the spectators.

In a historical perspective, the relationship between digital media and the museum environment is marked by the role of museums as example use cases for the application of digital media. Today, this exceptional use as an often technology oriented application has changed and instead digital media have turned into an integral part of mediation strategies in the museum environment. Alongside with this shift not only an increasing professionalization of application development but also a growing demand for new content can be observed.

IFACCA has compiled a range of good practice guides to assist arts councils and arts funding agencies to review, inform and improve their key functions.

The good practice guides section of the website provides links to over 100 resources published by a wide variety of organisations including arts funding agencies, private foundations, commercial publishers and by IFACCA.

This toolkit has been made possible by the generous contribution of the European Commission, through the Structuring the Cultural Sector in the Pacific for Improved Human Development project. The toolkit was drafted following the Cultural Policy Workshop held at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) headquarters in Nouméa, New Caledonia from 2528 March 2010, and is designed to provide guidance to countries and territories carrying out the cultural mapping, planning and policy process.