The responsibility of cultural managers in transformation societies was the central topic of the first winter school for master's and doctoral students organised by Heilbronn University and the Brokering Intercultural Exchange (BIE) network with participants from 16 countries. It took place at the end of November 2018 in Berlin in cooperation with MitOst e.V. and the Robert Bosch Cultural Managers Network.

Over the last thirty+ years the Fine Arts have found themselves in an increasingly tight squeeze between a rock and hard place in most Western countries. Their development shows why not every arts market segment can be measure by the same criteria – like an egalitarian community purpose, financial independence or adaptation to capitalist logic – and why there is still a need for Arts for Art’s Sake.

Leading an institution in a period of change is one of the toughest challenges in cultural management today. As director of the philharmonie zuidnederland (South Netherlands Philharmonic), Stefan Rosu developed the idea of an independent scientific centre on Classical Music to conduct research on orchestras and advise them regarding innovation and renewal.

In the beginning of September 2018, the German Library Association invited me to travel to Latvia and Lithuania to trace the status quo of digitization in big and small libraries in Riga, Klaipda, Plunge and Vilnius together with a group of German journalists. Above all, I took one thing with me: compared to Germany, digitization is a matter of course in the Baltic States.

How to build an independent art scene? For those directly involved in the Lubumbashi Biennial in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this is an urgent question that has clear social consequences. By investing in its own locality while forging its place in the world, the Biennial is leading the way.*

We have witnessed the development of the field of arts management with its own professional identity and academic programs around the world. But one wonders if its theoretical framework, curricula and approaches really respond to the reality of the different countries, especially when considering the distinction between North and South. The book Introduction to International Arts Management by Raphaela Henze assumes the important role of provoking this discussion.

On 27 September, Dr. Alba Victoria Zamarbide Urdaniz from Waseda University in Japan was announced as the winner of the 5th ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Cultural Management for her PhD on "Re-defining the role of 'buffers' in the management of the historical territory. The discrepancies between theoretical concepts and practical interpretations of 'buffer' zones in Eastern and Western Cultural World Heritage sites.”

In order to fully exploit the potential of the Robert Bosch Cultural Managers Network (RBCM Network), a group of Master students from Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Germany evaluated the network and identified central aspects for its further development.

Compared to the large public institutions, small theatres have to fight for their survival time and again. But this independence also allows freedom to experiment, whether in terms of artistic formats and themes or cultural management. The Theatre Får302 in Copenhagen has been doing this very successfully for over 30 years and has repeatedly attracted national attention.

This paper deals with the power mechanisms inherent in our knowledge system, particularly focusing on the language used in arts management practice.

This paper is a guide to the basics of up-to-date communication in the arts sector. It focuses on the key point in making communication with arts audiences more efficient: to convey your values and to connect with peoples needs and desires.

In October 2017, eleven students of the Zurich University of the Arts, study programme Cast/ Audiovisual Media travelled to Hong Kong to take over the "Zurich meets Hong Kong" city festivals social media channels and report on around 50 events as an "embedded social media team".

The book by Jenny Svensson - by now only published in German under the title Die Kunst, Kultur (nicht) nur zu messen: Evaluation im Theater- und Kulturbetrieb - presents a functional model of evaluation measures of public funded cultural enterprises. Thus, it makes a fruitful contribution to the path to further professionalization of the cultural industry and cultural management.

While #metoo dominates the media, there is a growing debate about gender equality in the cultural field as well. But where do the German and international art scene stand when it comes to art and gender? Katrin Hassler's book (currently only available in German) attempts to explore this in a quantitative study and provides figures on the significance of gender for filling leading positions in the art field.

In October 2016, when the Goethe Institutes "Damascus in Exile" project was launched in a small shop in the center of Berlin, it was a structural novelty that brought a symbolic space and its political significance at the center of attention, and brought together people of different origins.

Located in the village of Zverino, 70km from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, Kamenov House is a place to think, write, create and live in an authentic rural environment, intended for creative people cultural managers, PhD students, academics and small-size creative teams. The House Launch day is 15 July 2018, applications can be send anytime.

Lukasz Wróblewskis book seeks to address a lack of basic theoretical knowledge in the areas of strategic and marketing management amongst those working in the cultural sector. For arts professionals from countries such as the UK - the reviewers home country - this diagnosis may seem outdated. Yet given that Wróblewskis main research interest is the Polish cultural sector, this assessment can at least partly be revised allowing for the differing trajectory of development in the countrys arts institutions in recent years. Wróblewskis book therefore provides an enlightening and empirically based introduction to the current status of Polish arts management.

How to Run a Theatre (2011) by Jim Volz is a good introduction to this field for someone currently unfamiliar with arts management. Volz addresses the largest pillars of theatre management (position types, board relations, personnel management/HR, strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, and financial management), while also referencing nuances of the job, such as competition and finding a work/life balance both with a focus on the US arts sector.

Key questions in international arts management, e.g. on the communication between individuals from different backgrounds or the role of arts managers in challenging contexts, were addressed by the group of highly-qualified and experienced participants at the fourth workshop of the Brokering Intercultural Exchange Network that took place at Goldsmiths University of the London, November 15 - 17, 2017.

For this interview, our correspondent Lisa Harborth talked to Alejandra Solórzano, a cultural producer who is working for the Ministry of Culture and Youth in Costa Rica. They spoke about the local arts sector, the unique position of concert bands in this small country and their link to the non-existing army.