Tourism has been one of the most remarkable economic phenomena of the last few decades. In 2004, Canadians made over 175 million person-visits within Canada, spending more than $37 billion along the way. Studies show that between 1.1 million and 2.7 million potential Canadian tourists are passionate for visual arts and handicrafts, performance arts, heritage, museums, and festivals ...

The Foundation Center has just released the 2005 statistics detailing foundation staffing and public reporting in the Grantmaker Stats area of FC Stats at its Web site.

16 German and 11 Hungarian cities have been competing for the title of "European Capital of Culture 2010". Each city found new forms of cultural engagement and trod new paths in determining future city development during the process.

Consumer Spending on Culture shows that Canadian consumers spent $22.8 billion on cultural goods and services in 2003, an amount that is greater than consumer spending on tobacco, alcohol and games of chance combined. The $22.8 billion in consumer spending is over three times larger than the $7.4 billion spent on culture in Canada by all levels of government in 2002/03. The report also shows that consumer spending on live performing arts events ($980 million) is nearly double the spending on live sporting events ($530 million).

The Taipei Artist Village (TAV) provides an artist-led space where pioneering artists in all disciplines - visual, literary, musical, film/video/photography, performing and interdisciplinary - from throughout Taiwan and the world are brought together. The artists drawn to TAV share what is unique from their cultures and experiences, playing a crucial role in enhancing the beauty and grandeur of Taipei city.

By a letter of 18 July 2005, the Commission invited the competent authorities in the Member States and countries participating in the Culture 2000 programme to submit projects which could be granted the title of "European heritage laboratories" in 2006.

A Saudi billionaire has donated more than 17m euros (£11.7m or $20.5m) towards building an Islamic art gallery at the Louvre museum in Paris. Prince Walid bin Talal said he hoped the gallery would help people to gain an understanding of Islam as a religion of humanity and tolerance. The donation follows the recent London attacks, which have been blamed on British-born Muslims.

This is the 49th edition of Arts Management Newsletter, published in August 2005.

Some Alternative Futures for Development, Ownership and Participation in Leeds City Centre

In attempting to find its feet in the post-industrial world, over the last ten years Leeds has mobilised an extremely positive and upward image for itself, which we summarise through the idea of 'boomtown'. It now styles itself as 'Leeds: the UK's favourite city'.

Creative Enterprise Conference - 16 November 2005, Lancaster University

As part of National Enterprise Week in November, PALATINE, the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music, is holding a free conference that will address the issues around links between higher education and the creative industries, promoting enterprise in the creative sector and teaching cultural entrepreneurship.

Learning Lab Denmark has published an investigation into Organisational Art (OA), which is a tentative title for an art form that works together with organisations (companies, institutions, communities, governments and NGOs) to produce art.

The Second World Culturelink Conference, held in Zagreb from 9 to 12 June 2005, was attended by 150 participants from 40 countries, who represented different national and international associations, centers, cultural institutions, foundations, universities and various other organizations, or were individual Culturelink members.

Representatives of theatres and festivals from Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia/Montenegro, Turkey and Croatia adopted Thursday a declaration of the New European Theatre Action (NETA), which is a professional theatre network. NETA will promote cultural cooperation in European countries, develop theatre and cultural space, and is open to new members.

The Piccolo Teatro of Milan, Italy, is one of the most prestigious theatre companies in the world. Founded in 1947, it offers a diversified and multidisciplinary program that includes over 650 performances a year in the Piccolo's three theatres. In addition to running an acting school, the Piccolo tours in over 40 countries.

Much Ado About Management

This paper analyses the transformation of Italian opera houses from public institutions to private foundations. This reform was imposed by legislation calling for a more managerial approach, including the introduction of private capital.

A Multi-country Study

A cross-cultural study was conducted with Austrian, Canadian, Colombian and Italian moviegoers. Based on Hofstede's well-known value framework as well as some findings in the consumer information search literature, seven research hypotheses were put forward and tested.

Analysing the Market for Periodic Contemporary Art Exhibitions

This paper reports the results of an empirical study to identify criteria for the strategic positioning of the Venice Biennial, a prestigious international exhibition of contemporary art. Four criteria emerged from the qualitative analysis, the method most suitable for exploratory research: the curator, the theme of the exhibition, the personality of the exhibition and the organizational skills of the institution.

Museums of fine and decorative art are increasingly introducing computer-based interpretation devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and information kiosks into their exhibitions. Museum managers hope that such new technology will help raise visitor numbers, attract new audiences and enhance visitors experience of exhibits.

This position paper endorsed by a diverse range of people - executives, deans, professors, researchers, artists, students - argues that there is an urgent need for a balance between the "professional approach" and the "academic approach" within management schools, whose mission is to train managers who are capable of acting, as opposed to turning out academics who spend their entire career within the walls of the university interacting solely with other scholarly researchers and evaluating each other's work.

A Report on Practices and Performance in the American Nonprofit Theatre