Science centres are all about participation and the joy of discovery. Science centre NEMO in Amsterdam is no exception. Even on a school-week Tuesday the building is buzzing with energy and the sounds of excitement bouncing against the roof. I was positively surprised, therefore, that I was asked by Diana of NEMO to host a creative workshop on specifically the topic of participation and innovative ways of engaging with audiences.

NEMO is looking for ways to have visitors participate and engage with their content in a more sustainable and relevant way. In my own words, they want to build enduring relationships with their audience that go beyond the one-off event a visit to their building nowadays is. The main focus of the workshop, therefore, was how to embed participation in a meaningful way in the activities of NEMO, so that it builds connections between the institution and people, and fosters enthusiasm.

The socio-political movement Anti-Consumerism attracts more and more followers. At its heart it is a movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. Fueled by the current economic situation, activists occupy Wall Street, a young casual trader is able to lure BBC into a fake interview where he states, I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession. Its an opportunity to make money. and forums for creative critiques on consumerism" gain followers rapidly. All this happens in a world where some artists are able to create artworks that are instantly sold for euro amounts up to 7 digits.

The tremendous construction boom in China led to an expansion of the cultural infrastructure: Hundreds of new theaters, museums and multiplex cultural centers have been built during the last ten years or are currently under construction or being planned. The result: A huge demand for staff.

After the great success of the advanced training and study program "Culture Management in China in 2009, this project continued with its second edition in 2010, with a wider range of fields involving cultural centers, performing arts institutions, film and theater festivals, music and cultural agencies, museums and media sector. The aim is to provide the participants with universally applicable management tools for cultural organizations as well as to enhance their understanding and capability for international exchange or coproduction projects.

One tool is audience development. In these days audience development is important not only in Germany, but also in China because it is necessary to initiate, to build and to court the mutual relation between arts and audience.

The UK-based Arts Marketing Association (AMA) will held the Digital Marketing Day on 10 November 2011 in London. This day conference is aimed at anyone responsible for the relationship audiences or visitors have with your company via digital technology e.g. marketers, digital specialists, and those working in audience development and public engagement. The delegates will learn more about new ideas, channels and content for reaching and engaging audiences in a digital, networked world.

Together AMA will unpick how opportunities such as social media, mobile, location-based marketing and apps, video and interactive TV could affect our marketing approach, the content we create and share, and the relationships we build with our audiences over the coming year.

Interviewed Seong Hee KIM, Director of Festival Bo:m, presenting mainly the contemporary and multi-disciplinary works. She talks about her idea on contemporary arts and her own artistic path.

In this issue we deliver news and background stories from Denmark, Russia, South Korea and the United States. But the perspective is not a national, but a global one. First of all, Peter Tarlow from Texas shares his ideas about the relationship between arts and tourism with us. Many cities, Dr. Tarlow considers, have not taken advantage of either the cultural side of the arts or the commercial side. But nearly each city have a local art scene, which could be an additional value for the community, if you include them in your tourism marketing concept. Tarlows main idea is about creating a co-operative atmosphere between the arts and tourism communities.

The 2011 Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) takes place from Monday, October 10 to Friday, October 14 at the National Theater of Korea, National Drama Company, and other venues in the Seoul area. Annually organized by the Korea Arts Management Service, with support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea, PAMS is a platform for encouraging active creation and production, distribution, and overseas activities in the performing arts.

A Platform for Creation and Distribution in the Performing Arts

Making its seventh edition this year, PAMS has been attracting ten thousand performing arts professionals from Korea and overseas, while around 400 performances of 104 PAMS Choice selections have been staged throughout the world in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The Goethe-Instituts successful pilot project Competence Centre for Cultural Managers will be continued in 2011. For the second time, ten professionals from the cultural sector in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and southern Caucasus will take part in the advanced training programme in Germany. Starting in February, each will complete a four-week internship at German cultural institutions such as the German Historical Museum in Berlin, the Cologne network ON-Neue Musik and the Grips-Theater. The participants will conclude the programme by implementing their own project in their home country with the support of the local Goethe-Institut.

Cultural managers in the arts scenes of countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia have many difficulties. They often lack experience, in particular in the field of international cooperation. This is the focus of our programme, explains Katrin Ostwald-Richter, project manager of the advanced training programme Competence Centre for Cultural Managers, which was initiated in 2009 by the Goethe-Institut as a pilot project and will be held for the second time in 2011. The target group is professionals from the cultural sectors from the countries of the former Soviet Union working in governmental and non-governmental cultural institutions or as freelancers. They will be supported in developing up to date structures for international cooperation in the cultural sector, setting up networks and at the same time enhancing their own professional profiles.

The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy and Dubrovnik International University (DIU) are pleased to announce the graduate Master of Arts program in International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy. Offered by DIU in partnership with the ICD, the program will combine the traditional academic components of international relations with a new focus on the role of soft power and cultural diplomacy in contemporary global affairs.

While the study of political science has been a cherished tradition of academia, the developments outlined above demand the identification of entirely new theories and models. An understanding of the challenges faced by the contemporary world requires an interdisciplinary approach; International Relations and Diplomacy should not be understood only as disciplines of Political Science or Political Theory, but also be interpreted from the perspective of art and culture, economics, law, and other social sciences.

It's only 3 weeks until the world's leading thinkers in the arts descend upon Melbourne, Australia, for the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture - have you registered yet?

The World Summit theme is Creative Intersections and each day a field of 70 speakers from all over the world will explore three broad aspects of the central theme: place, people and projects. Throughout the Summit from October 3-6, delegates will also have an opportunity to participate in a vibrant arts programme and attend performances from the Melbourne Festival.

Ulla-Alexandra Mattl will be our correspondent in Melbourne and report about the World Summit after the conference in our newsletter. Just subscribe at http://newsletter.artsmanagement.net to read the inside stories for arts managers!

We are glad to provide you with a special focus on the United Arab Emirates in our latest newsletter issue with the support of our consultant Doerthe Ramin, who visited the region this year.

Community sustainability is viewed as encompassing and intertwining environmental, cultural, social, and economic sustainability and resiliency. This international event promotes knowledge development and exchanges of practice-led research on cultural and social dimensions of sustainable city-building, involving architects, theatre-makers, community artists, urban developers, researchers in many disciplines, and university teachers and students. These exchanges will be facilitated in two ways: (a) an international symposium in which participants share their experiences and insights and discuss the challenges of the work; and (b) two workshops in which artists/architects and researchers work together.

Geneva, 4 August 2011. Today CERN* launches its cultural policy for engaging with the arts. Called Great Arts for Great Science, this new cultural policy has a central strategy - a selection process for arts engagement at the level of one of the world's leading research organizations.

This puts CERNs engagement with the arts on a similar level as the excellence of its science, said Ariane Koek, CERN's cultural specialist.

CERNs newly appointed Cultural Board for the Arts will be the advisers and guardians of quality. It is made up of renowned cultural leaders in the arts from CERN's host-state countries: Beatrix Ruf, Director of the Kunsthalle Zurich; Serge Dorny, Director General of the Lyon Opera House; Franck Madlener, Director of the music institute IRCAM in Paris. Geneva and CERN are represented by Christoph Bollman of ArtbyGenève and Michael Doser, an antimatter scientist. Membership of the board is an honorary position that will change every three years.

@ Image: Simon Norfolk (UK) CERN series

It is no surprise that we have an immense and varied culture in the United States. Yet when it comes to the arts, there is no reason why a person with a visual disability must also be culturally disadvantaged. For communities to sustain their cultural vibrancy, they cannot afford to ignore any portion of the resources available within the community. In fact, too often people with disabilitiesespecially people who are blind or have low visionare not welcome in a community's cultural institutions simply because programs are not accessible in a meaningful way.

Tallinn is the European Capital of Culture in 2011. The present article is written in August while half of the year is over. Some summary how successful the Culture year has been and what kind of changes it has emerged can already be done. Though the real long-term effects of the year we can make after several years.

The planning and preparation that Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture in 2011 started already in 2005 and the process came through several phases. It started with the discussions and brainstorming of working groups where belonged officials from different city departments as well as art people. Those groups prepared also the official application to the European Commission. In 2007 an independent organization The Capital of Culture Foundation Tallinn2011 was founded by the City of Tallinn with the functions of preparing and coordination of execution of the program. The infrastructure projects were performed by different city departments or state institutions.

The expectations what kind of problems the process of Capital of Culture will solve were very different: artists and culture people hoped to fulfil their dreams and ideas that could not have done in "ordinary year", marketing people found that the most important aim is the rise of foreign tourists, city planners stressed the need for developing disused districts of the town, etc., etc.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Office of Research & Analysis will offer, for the first time, grant opportunities to researchers. The grants will support investigation of novel and significant research questions about the value and impact of the U.S. arts sector through the analysis of existing and/or newly established datasets. The NEA anticipates awarding roughly 25 grants, generally ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. At the end of the award period, grantees will submit a research report for posting on the NEA website.

According to a research conducted by Korea Arts Management Service and Korea Labor Institute in year 2008, professionals working at arts management get job satisfaction from psychological reward and high expectation about future prospects despite of their hard working conditions regarding long working hours, low income, poor welfare and services for employees, and conditions of employment .

Cellsbutton is the first media art festival in Indonesia which celebrates its 5th year. The organizer is House of Natural Fiber (HONF), Yogyakarta new media art laboratory, which was founded in 1999. Their main focus is artistic development and innovation of the arts. To achieve this goal, they strive to introduce new media art projects and workshops to the cultural environment of Yogyakarta. Every program is aimed at interactivity with the people and their social and cultural environment.This year´s Cellsbutton edition will be focused on the problematics of education in new technologies and their use in daily lives of ordinary people.The festival itself aims at creating a working and efficient platform for artistic exchange and collaboration.

The house of natural fiber, yogyakarta new media art laboratory, was founded in 1999. Our main focus is artistic development and innovation of the arts. We intend to achieve this goal especially by introducing new media art projects and workshops to the cultural environment of Yogyakarta. Every program is aimed at interactivity with the people and their social and cultural environment.

Thinking forward, positivity and creativity is the vision for our community. This vision is implemented in every program: we try to develop a symbiosis between art and technology. In our concept of the future of art and technology, the analysis of the specific role of technology within the arts in itself is crucial.

A new study by the Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC) at Teachers College Columbia University launched today at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, finds that aging artists are models for society especially as the workforce changes to accommodate multiple careers and baby boomers enter the retirement generation.

Evidence for this claim is provided in the first needs assessment of aging performing artists in the New York and Los Angeles metro areas now available in the RCAC report: STILL KICKING - Aging Performing Artists in NYC & LA Metro Areas: Information on Artists IV. The study is the first of its kind to understand how performing artistswho often reach artistic maturity and artistic satisfaction as they ageare supported and integrated within their communities, and how their network structures change over time. It complements the RCACs 2007 study of aging visual artists, published as ABOVE GROUND. The artists studied are actors, dancers, choreographers, musicians and singers.

Aging artists belie stereotypes: They are passionate about their work, and put the good news and bad news into it. They feel validated as artists and rank high in life satisfaction and self-esteem; 86% in NYC and 92% in LA would choose to be an artist again. Nor are aging artists isolated: More than half of them communicate daily or weekly with other artists, and more than half continue to be working artists and do not expect to retire until they are 90.

Australian arts audiences are using online resources to help shape and inspire their arts experience with 40% becoming aware of an arts event online, 75% using on line resources to research their event and 66% going on line after the event to share their experience.

Connecting:// arts audiences online, new research released today by the Australia Council for the Arts, demonstrates the use of online media at each stage of the audience journey from the point of first becoming aware of an the event, to attendance through to sharing their experience afterwards.