The German arts management professor Birgit Mandel visited two arts management programs in the USA and attended the main conference of AAAE, the Association for Arts Administration Educators at Universities and Colleges, that took place April 16-18, 2015 in Portland. There, she realized several aspects of managing arts that contradict the European presumption of the arts sector in the US.
Peter Gelb is General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, one of the worlds largest and most complex arts organizations. Since his inauguration in 2006, he launched a number of new projects to attract new and younger audiences. But the debts are still growing and as the Met is the most lavish privately financed opera house in the world, the opinion of the wealth and patronaging older opera lovers play an important role when it comes to management decisions.
"The most precious things in life are not those you get for money," said Albert Einstein. Cultural managers, artists, and cultural policymakers are well aware that the personal and social value of culture cannot simply be measured through funding. Nevertheless, policy often tries to convey the rehabilitation of its budgets through funding cuts in the cultural sector while cultural institutions and initiatives complain about the lack of money not just since the economic crisis. In this context, the ENCATC (European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centers) placed the question "Is it all about money?" at the center of its annual conference 2014.
Money for publicity: this over-simplistic marketing principle that underlies any sponsorship agreement is increasingly losing its attractiveness for corporate communications. Today, entrepreneurial cultural engagement is less about image or about customer loyalty than it is about the central asset of trust. Hence, the idea of corporate cultural engagement has to be rethought.
SeriesCentral & South America
The Institute for Cultural Concepts Hamburg talked with Christina Gleich about the status of cultural politics and management in Ecuador.
The latest ADESTE report presents the knowledge, skills, competences, and personal attributes of an "Audience Developer". Based on interviews, national, European, and international focus groups, the project gained first-hand insights from experts and practitioners active in the field of arts, culture, training and education in 11 countries.
The Tower of Babel or the Arabian Nights: The cultural background of the historical Near East seems almost magical. The contrast with its modern counterpart could hardly be more striking, where armed conflicts and religious fervour alternate with western oriented luxury. But how about Arts and Culture during this times of crisis, conflicts and change?
The Culture Invest Congress calls itself the "largest industry get-together for cultural institutions and culture investors". Well, with over 50 presenting partners, 100 presentations and 36 panel discussions, all crammed into 2 intensive days, it may very well be the largest in Europe. More than anything else, the congress was an opportunity, as usual, to network and find out who is doing what and how.
Cultural organizations face the challenge of knowledge management with limited resources in day-to-day business operations. Knowledge is not (sufficiently) documented, nor is it secure with the organization because of fluctuation and irregular employment of staff. The goal of this paper by Prof. Gesa Birnkraut is to develop recommendations for the management of knowledge in cultural institutions based on theory and an online survey of 38 cultural institutions in total.
The stunning new home of The Library of Birmingham proved to be a fitting backdrop for The National Archives (TNA) and Research Libraries UKs (RLUK) second collaborative conference "Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities" on October 29th - 30th 2014. This years widened its scope to welcome representatives from the heritage and cultural sectors. More than 270 delegates from over 160 organisations across the UK and overseas discussed the benefits and challenges of cross-sector collaborations and the opportunities of digitality for the sake of broadening collections access for academia and the wider public alike.
The cultural management students Rebecca Baasch and Svenja Reiner attended for us the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR), which took place in Hildesheim, Germany from 9th to 12th September. In this article they describe their impressions as upcoming managers.
On the 16th and 17th October, the Karlshochschule International University, Germany held the conference ReThinking Management. Its aim was to critically reflect on the Western capitalist view of good management with regard to new contexts and challenges - a noble endeavor that promises to offer a lot for cultural management.
To be more open, creative, participative and to demonstrate the own value for society: Cultural practice and research have to deal with these challenges due to the impact of globalisation and digitalisation. One creative and innovative solution is Citizen Science.
The aim of this article is to address the importance of cross-sector collaboration within the creative industries. The paper contains research results about collaboration among two Amsterdam-based art factories. It discusses cross-sector collaboration, the paradox of collaboration and how public has an impact on this.
Arts and Audiences is a series of Nordic conferences on audience development and arts collaboration. In this sense it is a meeting point for cultural professionals who want to find new ways to extend audience engagement. We have talked to Camara Christina Lundestad Joof who is coordinating and co-producing this year's conference.
There are all kinds of starting points for discovery trips in todays dynamic and developing music education scene. One journey might begin here: in the midpoint of Europe, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where the Philharmonie Luxembourg is situated. The concert hall is home to the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL).
This study deals with coping strategies of theatre venues in England and the Netherlands regarding the financial crisis.
Is European culture visible enough in the globalized world? Why is culture from this continent often perceived as old-fashioned or even worse as out-dated? Is the export of national cultural products and services - in most European countries subsidized by the taxpayer - no longer relevant, or more relevant than ever before? Is it a huge waste of money, time, and effort or an attempt to create another form of globalization? These and several other questions concerning the export of culture are addressed by authors from different countries in order to initiate a debate about the role European cultural products and services are able to play globally.
SeriesDigital formats
Users come to Tates website with different motivations, knowledges of art, and have different preferences for browsing information online. At Tate, we have undertaken research to understand, analyse and map these users needs and expectations. We have then used this analysis to consider how we can develop more effective ways for users to find and consume our content about art, as well as enabling them to create their own experiences and meanings.
If you are looking for relevant information in the museum sector, you might have a look at the Reading Corner provided by the Network of European Museum Organisations.