The May issue of the Arts Management Newsletter takes a special focus on fundraising aspects in the arts sector. It provides a good overview about trends, specialized organisations and experts, books and web resources.

The latest issue of our Arts Management Newsletter has been released. We took a special look at the developments in orchestra management, but you will also find general news and trends in arts management as every month. Enjoy reading this newsletter, and tell your colleagues about our free news service for arts managers.

Washington, D.C. Advocacy, networking, research, professional development and information distribution. For 25 years, Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, has been dedicated to supporting and advancing the art form of professional dance across the country. Through research projects like community censuses and The Nutcracker Survey; national gatherings across the country such as the Roundtables and Council Meetings; leadership initiatives and professional training; and informative publications like the Dance/USA Journal, Dance/USA has played a pivotal role in advancing dance in America.

Many arts organizations begin their existence with a single artist--an Artistic Director/Founder supported by a volunteer board and perhaps some paid staff members in administrative support roles. Some arts organizations begin and end with this configuration, not living past the lifespan of their founding artist.
Others through growth or succession-planning begin to contemplate hiring their first General Manager or Executive Director . If your organization is at this point then this article is for you.

Apart from sending a press release to your favourite bloggers, how can marketers efficiently spend marketing dollars to influence word of mouth? Results of this survey suggest that one answer can be found in the online habits and behaviour of social influencers.

In this report, it examines:

As a manager in the arts industry, you face many of the same challenges as managers from other industries a demanding business environment, changing technology, pressure to innovate, cultural change, organisational transformation, people management and budget constraints.

AbaF Margaret Lawrence Bequest Scholarships provide arts managers with an opportunity to attend a fully-funded executive development program at one of Australias leading business schools: Melbourne Business Schools Mt Eliza Centre for Executive Education (MBS, Melbourne) or Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM, Sydney).

Applications for programs for the second half of 2007 close on April 20.

The Professional Guidelines, which is offered by Society of North American Goldsmiths, gives artists, craftspeople and communities the tips to deal with all the situations that are related with their careers. The goal is to hope the documents become a basic tool in implementing improved and equitable business leading toward standard professional practices.

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) represents the musicians in Americas major orchestras. Unionized orchestral musicians are highly trained, artistic professionals. In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has classified many professional workers as managers or supervisors. In so doing, the Court has diminished professional workers right to unionize because managers and supervisors are not protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). One interpretation of this jurisprudence is that collective bargaining agreements currently covering certain orchestral musicians actually violate the NLRA. By endangering orchestral musicians collective bargaining rights, the Court may inadvertently have placed American orchestras in jeopardy.

This report is a snapshot of the cultural life of England. It uses a handful of examples and case studies to illustrate the advances that have been made in the last few years.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts offers valuable skills building for arts managers through the Fellowship Program. The program provides up to 10 highly motivated, disciplined, and creative artists and arts managers the instruction and experience they need to succeed in today's complex arts environment.

Fellowships are full-time and last 10 months starting in September and ending in June. Application deadline is on April 1, 2007.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra sells its collection of renowned Golden Age Collection of string instruments due to its financial deficit.

Is culture losing its political clout in France? That may seem a bit of a stretch, since the government still pours 2.9 billion into the arts every year or 30 times the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States.

In Canada there is no official equivalent to The National Standards for Music Education. However, The Canadian Band Association has recently developed a similar document entitled National Voluntary Curriculum and Standards for Instrumental Music (Band).

Many authors argue that digital technologies, and particularly the World Wide Web, have great potential to serve the challenges faced by museums in relation to access and audience development, which involves reaching and nurturing both existing and new audiences. But what initiatives are there, and how effective are they? What strategies and actions are museums undertaking to take advantage of this potential? What is it being done to establish closer ties with core audiences or to attract new audiences? And what is the audience response to the museums efforts? The British experience in this field is of particular interest because it shows a political context favourable to the development of this emerging area of museum work, and it provides some remarkable and exemplary cases from which to learn good practices.

Ticketing arts organisations internationally are moving away from third party ticketing agencies and more towards in-house box office systems which allow them to build more meangingful customer relationships.

The special interest relationships characterized by the influence on cultural policy of music service networks are the focus of our analysis, as evidenced not only in the United States, but also in contemporary Japan. This paper will describe the activities of significant music networks in Japan and the United States and demonstrate that todays music-related service networks in Japan and the United States appear to have learned the lessons of the 1980s and 1990s challenges to arts and cultural policy.