Ever since jotting down a few observations on theaters crappy business model, Chris Ashworth found himself mildly obsessed with finding a solution to the problem of funding theater.

Creative, cultural and innovative industries offer unique opportunities for sustainable economic development in Pacific island countries, but initiatives to promote their development must be included in National Development Plans, says the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Speaking after a four-day Regional Consultation on the Cultural Industries, the Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade said that these industries could be developed from the traditional knowledge and rich cultures of the Pacific islands.

In order to set up a meeting point between cultural agents working in Latin America, several professionals, organisations and academic institutions from this sector have launched the Latin-American Network on Cultural Management (RedLGC).

The Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) in Canada, along with the Nordicity Group, are evaluating the impact of digital technology on the cultural sector.

The council want to encourage you to participate in the discussion of the impacts of digital technology that are rapidly changing the way cultural content is created, produced, distributed, marketed and consumed.

We have decided to focus this jubilee issue on one continent that unfortunately receives too little attention: Africa. There are not many people from Africa who read our newsletter, and of course there are many reasons for this. First of all, it is difficult to find authors and editorial contributions from this region and therefore we have been unable to offer much to the major role players in the African cultural sector. Add to this the language barrier. In many African countries, French, alongside the regional language, is spoken, and as our web resources are provided in English and German, we have been unable to cater directly to this. Another reason lies in the fact that there is simply a lack of infrastructure, both culturally and technically. There are few festivals, as well as theatrical and musical groups, which have access to the Internet. This will have to be a goal for the years to come, and in our opinion aid organizations must focus their efforts on access to education and information.

In the early 2000s the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), one of Montreals foremost cultural institutions, underwent two upheavals. First, management was thrown into turmoil by the unexpected departure of the OSMs celebrated music director, Charles Dutoit, just as the orchestra and its Swiss conductor were about to mark 25 years of successful partnership with celebrations planned for the 200203 season. Then, in May 2005, the orchestras management and board were faced with a strike by the orchestras musi-cians. The authors describe the efforts of the orchestras general manager, Madeleine Careau, to revive its fortunes, notably through a campaign to restore the OSMs prestige, which had been severely eroded by these two events.

This article examines leadership as an art (skill), redefines it as a characteristic rather than a process, and argues that behavioural skills useful for leader survival emerged over time. The emergence of leadership skills is traced through eight archaeological periods. For each period, three analyses are made: (1) the emergence of general leadership skills; (2) the emergence of art leadership skills; and (3) the possible transfer of leadership skills in art and in other areas, such as organizational leadership.

The worlds of art, and particularly the careers of artists, are often seen as unstructured and disorganized and therefore difficult to analyze. The author uses the case of contemporary poetry to put forward an analytical grid for these apparently labile universes. He identifies two forces that impose a structure on the universe of poetry: socio-economic constraints, and artists competencies and the aesthetic frontline. Poets careers steer a course between these beacons, which the author suggests could be called a tennis tournament, where progressive and structured selection operates.

The author sets out to measure the strategic equilibrium between differentiation and isomorphism through an analysis of mission statements presented by art museums in the United States. The mission statements are compared with one another, with the mission statements of other samples and with institutional definitions of museum. The results show that museums tend to take a position of strategic balance between differentiation and isomorphism. The museums converge with regard to their program of activities, absence of any mention of employees, definition of quality when referring to professional standards, and the search for qualitative objectives in the reach for visitors.

This article introduces the concept of appetitive strategies to describe the introduction of an ancillary product that allows arts patrons to consume part of the cultural experience in advance, such as by releasing a cast album prior to the opening of a musical theatre production. The authors argue that the appetitive value of such promotions lies in the enjoyment of consuming the product item per se (e.g., listening to a cast album) as well as the heightened anticipation of consuming the central product (e.g., attending the theatre performance).

Have you ever wondered what a conductor really does? Or how she (thats right!) picks the music? This website offers fans and first-timers a 140-character backstage pass to the wonderful world of classical music.

#askaconductor is the first #askthemusicians Twitter event. On December 8, 2010, conductors from around the world will come together to engage with fans, first-timers and complete strangers.

2nd KUFSTEIN SUMMER SCHOOL 2011

May 01-07 2011 | Palea Epidavros | Greece

In the context of an increasingly globalised world, issues of cultural leadership, deve- loping global cities and regional identity, public space and arts development have become increasingly important within the field of arts management.

The 2nd Kufstein Summer School in Greece will tackle academic attempts to create a new perspective on the significance of cultural identity of global cities and regions, seeing their economic and creative potential for sustainable events. International experts in the field will discuss current projects. Target groups are graduate students of arts management, cultural studies, event management and heritage management; interested students of other fields are welcome.

Accessing the arts online is becoming the norm for cultural consumers, though arts organisations may struggle to come up with financially viable digital strategies.

Digital access to the arts and culture is extending, rather than replacing, the live experience of the arts, and the Internet is now playing a much broader role in arts engagement than simply acting as a marketing channel. A significant minority use it not only to consume and share artistic content, but also to create it; and over half use social networking sites regularly. These latest findings from a major survey of 2,000 adult Internet users appear to confirm that engaging with the arts through digital media is now a mainstream activity.

Barcelona, December, 9th and 10th.

This meeting will bring together researchers, urban planners, policy makers, artists, cultural activists and entrepreneurs of tourist sector to assess the benefits of international collaboration in the rapidly developing field of creative tourism.

The conference will offer the opportunity to learn further about creative tourism, thanks to the lecture given by Professor Greg Richards, one of the originators of the concept, as well as to discover a wide range of case studies of projects and urban strategies related to this new trend.

The 3rd MediaCity conference will investigate how new media re-define social settings and urban spaces and how they influence architecture as well as media art & design in urban contexts, thus constituting new social and cultural practices.

TAP is a new way for visitors to experience the Museum using an iPod Touch or iPhone. IMA staff developed the software, which provides visitors to major exhibitions the opportunity to immerse themselves in the exhibition through an engaging and thought-provoking multimedia experience that costs just $5.

Most recently, IMA staff debuted for Sacred Spain, incorporating expert interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, on-location shoots, musical selections, x-ray imagery and other surprises. iPod Touch devices were available for rent onsite.

We know it happens. We have seen art save lives, cultural practices bring people together, cultural activism mobilize people, and artists activate the social imagination to make something new possible. While the potency of the arts as a catalyst for civic and social change is widely observed, cultural and community leaders struggle to measure it and make the case for the value of arts in civic engagement. Whose standards should apply? What evidence should be tracked and documented? How can hard-to-measure civic outcomes be substantiated? And, can they be attributed to our arts-based civic engagement efforts exclusive of other factors?

The Kennedy Centers Summer International Fellowship Program, part of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, offers international not-for-profit arts managers an immersive program of study in arts management strategy. For four weeks each summer, for three consecutive years, international fellows undertake academic coursework, a rotation of workplace assignments under the direction of senior Kennedy Center staff, and a structured series of professional development seminars. The curriculum includes seminars and coursework in strategic planning, board development, fundraising, marketing, and artistic planning.

This afternoons highly-anticipated Spending Review announcement has reiterated that the government will maintain free entrance to museums and galleries, and confirmed that funding extensions for the Tate and British Museum will still go ahead valued at almost £350m. Arts Council England (ACE), however, has been hit with a 29.6 % budget cut, amounting to a real-term reduction of £100m from £450m to £350m by 2014. Local government also faces funding cuts of 7% year-on-year, reducing cash by 28 % by 2015. The double whammy of grim news is likely to hit the arts hard, as provision of cultural services is not a statutory duty for local authorities and ACE has already declared itself to be operating at its most streamlined.

Overall, the DCMS will lose almost 25% of its funding over four years. Chancellor George Osborne has ordered that 41% of this budget cut is to be shouldered by a reduction in the departments administrative costs. The DCMS currently receives £1.6bn grant-in-aid, which will be slashed to £1.1bn by 2014/15. Osborne also declared that front-line arts services and specific projects are to be cut by not more than 15%, with the remainder of the savings to come from admin costs. ACE has been told to cut 50% of its own administrative budget in order to protect front-line services.