The Centre for Local Government of the Laurentian University has published its first issue of Culture and Local Governance/Culture et gouvernance locale (CLG), a bilingual peer-reviewed online journal. The issue focuses on the role of culture in the new context of local planning, where the sustainability factor is becoming a priority.

We just had a planning retreat with some of our board members, and they asked us questions about our audience that we couldnt answer. So we realized we need to do a survey...

As a researcher who works with arts organizations and museums, I get that call or email frequently. The marketing director of a theater, classical ensemble, dance company, or art museum will get in touch, often passing along a detailed request-for-proposal for audience research, and sometimes already armed with a list of survey questions that she and her executive director brainstormed together.

The Conference Creative Entrepreneurship and Education in Cultural Life held in Chicago from July 15 to July 18, 2009 was a collaboration between ENCATC and the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Department of Columbia College Chicago. The conference represented continued work of the ENCATC specialty group that explores policies and practices in creative entrepreneurship and was the first ENCATC event held in the United States. The event was attended by 53 participants. A diverse group included academics and independent consultants, business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs from such countries as France, the UK, Serbia, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Australia, Lithuania, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, and USA.

The cultural and creative sectors play an important economic and social role in Europe, contributing to European GDP, growth and employment. These industries and the creativity which they generate are therefore an essential asset for Europe's economy and competitiveness in the context of globalisation. While these industries are performing well, with cultural entrepreneurs being risk takers and innovators with long-term vision, there is still further scope fully to develop this potential. These enterprises -which are part of the cultural and creative industries- need to be able to take full advantage of the EU internal market and adapt to the rapidly changing environment characterised in particular by globalisation and a technology revolution (digital shift). These developments call for new skills within the industry as well as new European business and economic models.

In the face of growing environmental and economic urgencies, issues of sustainability and resiliency are moving to the forefront of planning, policy, and programs in cities and communities of all sizes. City planning paradigms are mutating from a focus on building creative cities to that of achieving sustainable cities. Internationally, this shift is evident among local governments adopting sustainability goals for towns, cities, and regions; creating sustainable community plans; and implementing community projects related to sustainable development. Yet cultural considerations, while recognized in urban and community planning contexts, are not integrated into sustainability planning in a widespread way.

The National Arts Index is a highly distilled annual measure of the health and vitality of arts in the United States by using 76 equal weighted, national-level indicators of arts activity. This report covers an 11-year period, from 1998 to 2008.

The Arts Council of Great Britain and the Development of Theatre and Performance in Britain 1945-1995. Regional Spaces, National Stages: Performance beyond London 1945-2010. This symposium at the University of Reading at 17th Sept 2010 will analyse the role of performance outside London in Britain's theatrical ecology.

Theatre Management: Producing and Managing the Performing Arts delivers a broad, comprehensive, wide-angle view of theatre and performing arts management, based on the premise that all of the performing arts share the same core issues: producing or presenting artistically satisfying works in accord with their missions, finding and keeping an audience, providing for the financial and creative well-being of an organization or production, and maintaining good personnel and public relations.

In connection with her forthcoming book about the issue, consultant and researcher Dr Anne-Marie Quigg is seeking performing arts employees who have had experience of any aspect of workplace bullying.

Arts Management is anything but a mere amalgamation of the world of the arts and the world of business management; it is the confrontation of two opposing methodologies, one being a field of human creativity that produces something new that did not exist before, the other one diving into the existing world of business practices, in order to improve their efficiency.

Our current episode takes on a controversial questionhow important is a graduate degree in our field? Andrew Taylor of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at UW Madison shares his thoughts on this thorny issue. Panelists Ron Evans, Matt Campbell, and Maris Smith join the conversation on advantages and disadvantages to getting a graduate degree on the path to a career in the arts.

Arts Manager, the web platform for Russian arts managers, has made an interview with Marco Mancuso, the creator and director of the «Digicult» project, covering issues of digital culture on the internet and project management.

"In his first year, President Barack Obama has marshaled the largest infusion of cultural funding in decades - despite a few stumbles.

Though still far less than arts advocates contend is needed, they have high hopes this president could transform cultural policy, funding and arts education for years to come.

Why do we need cultural producers? What are our tasks in different European countries? How will our future look like? These are the kinds of questions we want to discuss with you at "To Culture with Love. Management" (TCWL.M). Our workshop is about the professions, the future and the diversity of cultural producers and arts managers in Europe.

Brno, February 11-14th 2010

Tthe Marcel Hicter Association, based in Brussels (Belgium), open the application process for the European Diploma in cultural project management 2010-2011.

Culture Business, the international meeting point for arts sponsorship professionals, is hosting its second event, on 10 December 2009 at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in Paris. What is Culture Business for ? 200 professionals from all over Europe and the United States formed the first international network of sponsorship and culture experts. CultureBusiness was a meeting point between cultural institutions and sponsoring companies sharing their expectations and constructing a new dialogue based on listening to and respecting each other's values.

The report aims to answer questions on cultural management and the state of the field. Does management of culture and the arts differ significantly from traditional business management? What is the role of science in cultural management? In the emphasis on business and practice by many cultural managers, are arts and culture left too far behind? How do research and theory fit into training, and in the work of cultural managers in the field?

The global recession is expected to reduce revenues for cultural enterprises by approximately $3.1 billion in 2009".

This is one of the findings of "The Effect of the Global Economic Recession on Canada's Creative Economy in 2009", a report prepared by The Conference Board of Canada for the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) that measures the impact of the current recession on the cultural sector.

Are Managers doing everything wrong these days? A plea for goal-oriented leadership and sensible management, written on the centennial of Peter F. Druckers birth in 1909.