This groundbreaking book brings together a collection of essays on the revolution taking place in museums around the world as they look anew at the ways communities are represented. It highlights a fundamental shift occurring in 21st century museums: how they confront existing assumptions about people, and the pioneering ways they work with specific groups to narrate oral histories, tell ancestral stories and keep memories from the past alive.

The philosophical thread, woven through each essay, expresses a rejection of popular claims that minority people are necessarily silent, neglected and ignorant of the processes of representation. This book showcases contemporary museums as spaces of dialogue, collaboration, reclamation and storytelling. It acknowledges the radical efforts many museums and communities make to actively engage with and overthrow existing misconceptions, on the important subject of race and ethnicity.

Turner prize-winner Richard Wright and nominees Roger Hiorns and Mike Nelson, Britains representative at the 2011 Venice Biennale, share a common bond beyond their recent honoursboth are participating artists in the Artist Pension Trust (APT).

APT is an art investment fund with a twistthe artists contribute the works themselves, and the trust is structured to provide future income for the artists. Now in its seventh year, it has a global portfolio of 1,100 artists and a collection of more than 4,500 works, which it values at $45m. This year, its lending and exhibition division, APT curatorial services, will mount five exhibitions in Bahrain, Beijing, Berlin, Cairo and at Bard College in upstate New York.

What does the term social entrepreneurship actually mean? Broadly speaking, it describes situations in which business principles are used to further social good. Many artists and organizations working in the arts and culture sector have already made use of social entrepreneurship with great success. However, while they have been systemically integrated into the strategies of organizations working in issue areas such as international development, poverty reduction, and public health, their potential has not been fully realized in the arts and culture sector.

Social entrepreneurship, or social enterprise, is a general term that applies to any individual or group that uses business principles to both further social good and generate profits. Social entrepreneurs both individually and within the context of organizations work to develop targeted to solutions to specific, often localized, social problems. Many of the major advances in social entrepreneurship have been in the field of international development, where small-scale, highly targeted projects can have far-reaching impact for communities in developing countries.

The conference will be organized on June 24 and 25, 2010 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and held in Old Arena - a club for culture and information 2015.

The Ministry of Culture held a teleconference with representatives of government, financial institutions and major creative enterprises on April 14 to encourage financial support for Chinas emerging cultural industry.

The Ministry, along with the CPC Publicity Department, Peoples Bank of China, Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), General Administration of Press and Publication, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), were following up a March 19 instruction to the financial sector to provide financial support to the cultural industry.

Many people will work without pay in the arts. But are they being exploited?

THERE'S no lack of people lining up to take on unpaid or poorly paid roles volunteering their time for arts organisations. With the possible exception of charities, and community groups, very few areas of life are more reliant on voluntary labour than the arts. But what responsibility does the arts have to the unpaid? Put simply: are interns exploited?

The objective of this consultation is to gather views on various issues impacting the cultural and creative industries in Europe, from business environment to the need to open up a common European space for culture, from capacity building to skills development and promotion of European creators on the world stage. The responses to the consultation will inform the Commission and help it ensure that EU programmes and policies involving cultural and creative industries are "fit for purpose".

Building audiences for a performing arts organization is a multi-faceted endeavor. But theres one common thread that, to me, is indispensable for helping the performing arts organization create and maintain connections with its audience, its staff and volunteers, and the general community within which it operates.

That common factor may be described as personalizing the performing arts group, whether theatre company, dance company, jazz trio, cabaret troupe, or chamber music ensemble. Personalizing involves putting a face on the company; it is being mindful of the vital role of communications in everything from your box office staffs interface with ticket buying public to keeping your audiences informed of news about your organization and having your staff members participate in other cultural and service associations in the community.

A team of Oliver Wyman consultants applied cutting-edge customer-based strategy methodologies to find out what drives symphony concertgoers to return or churn. They found a sobering trend:

* 90% of first-time concertgoers never return

* 60% of occasional concertgoers dont purchase tickets the following season

Now, symphony orchestras across the US are applying solutions from the Audience Growth Initiative (aka "Churn Report") to entice first-timers back and develop a new generation of orchestra supporters.

A bill to let counties use sales tax money to help struggling arts groups has had trouble getting traction in the legislature, despite broad support. The measure failed to make last weeks Crossover Day deadline, meaning it could die if not attached to another bill already approved by the House. That would be only the latest blow to the arts in metro Atlanta and Georgia, which are feeling the pain of a weak economy in many ways.

Public arts funding is being slashed. Corporate and foundation giving is down as businesses salve their own red-ink wounds or refocus giving on social causes. Attendance is off for many arts groups. Layoffs are up. A few organizations, such as the Atlanta Opera, are presenting less of their art to avoid production costs they cant afford.

In November 2009, Technology in the Arts launched a survey of arts and cultural organizations learn about their ticketing needs and to gauge how well current ticketing tools are meeting those needs.

Nearly 900 arts and cultural professionals completed the survey to evaluate their satisfaction with over 50 ticketing software tools.

Social media tools are fun, hip, sexy, cheap and easy to use. Its not too surprising that arts organizations are quick to embrace the ever-evolving world of social media. While I believe a social media presence is almost always necessary, when I work with an arts organization or get asked a question about social media tools, my first response is to ask some key questions such as:

Who is your target customer?

What is your current message?

What are your competitors doing?

Are you trying to reach a new market segment?

What are you trying to accomplish?

PRACTICS. See Mobile See Practical is a 3-year project coordinated by the Finnish Theatre Information Centre which joined forces with ten other cultural organisations from six EU-countries with the aim to facilitate the provision of information about EU cross-border mobility in the cultural sector.

Its election time in the United Kingdom. Most polls predict that after 14 years of Labour Government, the Conservative Party will soon reign again in Downing Street. Labour and the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown are so unpopular in the country that it will take more than a small wonder to snatch the electoral win away from David Cameron and the Tories. Although very little is known yet about their actual policies, British voters consider the Conservative Party as more competent and better equipped to tackle present and current challenges in virtually every field of policy. Even cultural policy, a field that has traditionally been regarded as an area of Labour expertise, seems to be falling to the Tories.

Transform, transforming, and transformative are common terms for describing museum spaces, the creation of objects on display, and experiences for visitors. But is there evidence that museums profoundly change visitors through their objects, collections, exhibitions, public programs, and websites?

The Society of London Theatre and the Theatrical Management Association are seeking a new joint Chief Executive. They have appointed executive search firm Odgers to assist in the appointment process.

The current Chief Executive, Richard Pulford, has announced his intention to retire from the role around the end of the year. He was appointed in 2001 in succession to Rupert Rhymes. Richard will continue to work as an arts consultant on selected projects.

The Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute Fellowship provides 10 mid-career arts managers with academic training and practical work experience at the nations cultural center, one of the worlds largest and most dynamic performing arts institutions. Fellows study with senior staff in weekly seminars (strategic planning, development, finance, and marketing), and complement that study with practical work rotations in three departments.

Communicating the Museum was created in 2000 by Corinne Estrada, Managing founder of Agenda. The event originally taking place in Paris gathered a group of 15 French-British attendees in order to discuss communication issues. 8 years later, the conference peaked to a record 278 participants from all over the world after being welcomed by some of the most prestigious cultural venues in Europe including Paris, Madrid, Rotterdam, Venice, Malaga, Turin, and Valencia.

Within ten years, Communicating the museum has asserted itself as the leading event for senior museum communication professionals to meet, exchange, network and work on problem solving key-issues.

Fortaleza/CE, in the northeast of Brazil, is going to feel the cultural manifests of all over its country this month. The TEIA 2010 Digital Drums is going to take place at the Dragão do Mar Center of Art and Culture from March 25th until the 31st.

The TEIA2010, as the name implies (Teia means Network) is a tangle of cultural events of different regions of Brazil. It is an opportunity to reveal the many different Brazilian cultural manifests through the decentralization of production.

The program will count with the completion of the Third National Forum of Cultural Points, seminars, panels, debates, round-tables discussions, among others. Still, the program counts with audiovisual exhibitions and scenic presentations and an Economic Solidarity fair.