Hosted by the Sinfonia ViVA the 26th ABO annual conference in Derby (Midlands) from February 16 -18 with many representatives from British orchestras discussed their future. These are dangerous times for arts organisations, but the annual conference is grasping the nettle and looking at how its members can ride with the punches, wrote Andrew Stewart in the conference magazine. Arts Council of England is to be expected announcing its cuts end of March 2011 which will mean some "bloody" decisions.

Gerald Mertens (German Orchestra Association) reports on the ABO annual conference 2011.

Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced that a grant of $20,000 has been awarded to support the creation of the 6th edition of The Fundamentals of Arts Management, the Arts Extension Services signature book used by 45% of the colleges and universities that teach arts management courses. The project is one of 1,057 recommended for a grant as part of the federal agencys first round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute $26.68 million to support projects nationwide.

Founded in 1973, Arts Extension Service (AES) is a national arts service organization housed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a mission to develop the arts in communities and community through the arts with professional education for arts managers, artists and civic leaders.An independent agency of the federal government, the NEA advances artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, I continue to be impressed with the creative, innovative, and excellent projects brought forward by arts organizations across the country. Our grantees are not only furthering their art forms but also enhancing their neighborhoods by making them more vibrant, livable, and fun."

The DeVos Institute of Arts Management Internship Program provides valuable on-the-job instruction for current college students (juniors and seniors) and recent graduates pursuing careers in arts management. Interns enjoy close working relationships with experienced arts management professionals, hands-on work opportunities, weekly seminars, and an integrated blend of independent and collective learning experiences. Internship placements, in departments throughout the Kennedy Center, are full-time and last three to four months depending on the program semester.

Program dates and application deadlines:

Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of Arts Council England (ACE) and Alan Davey, Chief Executive of ACE, were forced to defend their organisation at the latest evidentiary session of the Select Committee on the funding of Arts and Heritage. They were accused of bringing ACEs budget cuts on themselves through wastage and mismanagement, but both Forgan and Davey offered a robust defence: Davey claimed that ACE has probably done best out of the quangos that the DCMS funds, weve done better than Sport England and National Heritage. He rejected the assertion that ACE had got a raw deal from the government. Forgan agreed, saying our settlement should not be seen as a punishment for failing in our duty.

Nowadays, there are heavy demands on museum executives. They are supposed to open up the design of the institution of the museum while preserving all its complexity, break up obsolete organisational structures and hierarchies, and change institutional cultures. But what strategies can executives employ to successfully implement the necessary change processes and at the same time actively involve employees, stakeholders and visitors? What are the success factors for an organisational and social transformation and what key competencies are needed to be a successful leader? We would like to deal with the basic principles of leadership under the conditions of the organisational and social change of museums and show the way to a reflective practice in training sessions and discussions tailored to the needs of participants and supported by renowned practitioners.

The Culturelink Network invites you to participate in the research study "Encouraging Private Investment in the Cultural Sector" that IMO, Culturelink's focal point, is currently undertaking on behalf of the European Parliament (see letter of confirmation, PDF, 78 kB). Please respond to a short questionnaire that has been designed in order to pool your knowledge and experience, as insights learned through this exercise will bring benefit to all those in Europe that are working on enhancing the cultural sector.

Currently there is no precise picture of how different EU member states encourage private funding of culture and what the financial consequences of their policies are. The absence of common understanding of basic terms, the diversity of national approaches, as well as a lack of relevant data, at EU and Member State level, make the discussion of the importance of private financing of arts and culture difficult. This means that currently it is hardly possible to properly assess and understand the socio-economic aspect of the encouragement of private funding in the cultural sector.

As museums argue their case for sustainable funding in an increasingly challenging economic climate, the requirement to prove their value will be rigorous. But the concept of value is an evolving one and developing an evidence base is a challenging task. This article examines the concept of value as an emerging phenomenon, how we describe the value of museums and what evidence we have to support our claims. It uses recent literature and research in the UK and Australia.

June 10th 15th, 2011

With this international study tour for young choral managers, the competition team is offering a chance to combine the musical impressions and experiences gained during the competition with an intensive seminar on how to organize such an event.

The work in a small and effective group of 8-10 people, the observation of the competition, the direct contact to its director and manager and the possibility to talk to the staff and to have a look back stage are an excellent opportunity for young organizers.

The first edition of the Culture Conference - Conference of Spanish Cultural Professionals and Organisations, launched by the Spanish Federation of Cultural Management Associations (FEAGC), was held in Madrid on 17 December. The meeting involved the discussion and adoption of a ''Covenant for Culture'', resulting from the contributions of over 40 organisations of culture professionals, which presents recommendations in the field of cultural policy and sets the commitments of the cultural sector as regards the challenges of contemporary society.

Ever since jotting down a few observations on theaters crappy business model, Chris Ashworth found himself mildly obsessed with finding a solution to the problem of funding theater.

Creative, cultural and innovative industries offer unique opportunities for sustainable economic development in Pacific island countries, but initiatives to promote their development must be included in National Development Plans, says the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Speaking after a four-day Regional Consultation on the Cultural Industries, the Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade said that these industries could be developed from the traditional knowledge and rich cultures of the Pacific islands.

In order to set up a meeting point between cultural agents working in Latin America, several professionals, organisations and academic institutions from this sector have launched the Latin-American Network on Cultural Management (RedLGC).

The Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) in Canada, along with the Nordicity Group, are evaluating the impact of digital technology on the cultural sector.

The council want to encourage you to participate in the discussion of the impacts of digital technology that are rapidly changing the way cultural content is created, produced, distributed, marketed and consumed.

We have decided to focus this jubilee issue on one continent that unfortunately receives too little attention: Africa. There are not many people from Africa who read our newsletter, and of course there are many reasons for this. First of all, it is difficult to find authors and editorial contributions from this region and therefore we have been unable to offer much to the major role players in the African cultural sector. Add to this the language barrier. In many African countries, French, alongside the regional language, is spoken, and as our web resources are provided in English and German, we have been unable to cater directly to this. Another reason lies in the fact that there is simply a lack of infrastructure, both culturally and technically. There are few festivals, as well as theatrical and musical groups, which have access to the Internet. This will have to be a goal for the years to come, and in our opinion aid organizations must focus their efforts on access to education and information.

In the early 2000s the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), one of Montreals foremost cultural institutions, underwent two upheavals. First, management was thrown into turmoil by the unexpected departure of the OSMs celebrated music director, Charles Dutoit, just as the orchestra and its Swiss conductor were about to mark 25 years of successful partnership with celebrations planned for the 200203 season. Then, in May 2005, the orchestras management and board were faced with a strike by the orchestras musi-cians. The authors describe the efforts of the orchestras general manager, Madeleine Careau, to revive its fortunes, notably through a campaign to restore the OSMs prestige, which had been severely eroded by these two events.

This article examines leadership as an art (skill), redefines it as a characteristic rather than a process, and argues that behavioural skills useful for leader survival emerged over time. The emergence of leadership skills is traced through eight archaeological periods. For each period, three analyses are made: (1) the emergence of general leadership skills; (2) the emergence of art leadership skills; and (3) the possible transfer of leadership skills in art and in other areas, such as organizational leadership.

The worlds of art, and particularly the careers of artists, are often seen as unstructured and disorganized and therefore difficult to analyze. The author uses the case of contemporary poetry to put forward an analytical grid for these apparently labile universes. He identifies two forces that impose a structure on the universe of poetry: socio-economic constraints, and artists competencies and the aesthetic frontline. Poets careers steer a course between these beacons, which the author suggests could be called a tennis tournament, where progressive and structured selection operates.

The author sets out to measure the strategic equilibrium between differentiation and isomorphism through an analysis of mission statements presented by art museums in the United States. The mission statements are compared with one another, with the mission statements of other samples and with institutional definitions of museum. The results show that museums tend to take a position of strategic balance between differentiation and isomorphism. The museums converge with regard to their program of activities, absence of any mention of employees, definition of quality when referring to professional standards, and the search for qualitative objectives in the reach for visitors.

This article introduces the concept of appetitive strategies to describe the introduction of an ancillary product that allows arts patrons to consume part of the cultural experience in advance, such as by releasing a cast album prior to the opening of a musical theatre production. The authors argue that the appetitive value of such promotions lies in the enjoyment of consuming the product item per se (e.g., listening to a cast album) as well as the heightened anticipation of consuming the central product (e.g., attending the theatre performance).

Have you ever wondered what a conductor really does? Or how she (thats right!) picks the music? This website offers fans and first-timers a 140-character backstage pass to the wonderful world of classical music.

#askaconductor is the first #askthemusicians Twitter event. On December 8, 2010, conductors from around the world will come together to engage with fans, first-timers and complete strangers.