Most book reviews are written without including feedback or background information by the author. For this review, Constance DeVereaux decided to not only write about Jim Volz’ latest book "Introduction to Arts Management” but to additionally talk to him about why he thought another introduction to the field was needed.

This or a similar formulation can be found in various study and examination regulations of arts management study courses: The aim is "to enable graduates to meet current challenges in the cultural sector in a competent, creative and solution-oriented way". That is good - and yet still too little.

During the first Global Cultural Leadership Programme (GCLP) in 2016, forty young cultural leaders travelled from across the globe to meet in Valetta, Malta for one week. We - Alison Uttley (Canada), Beth Ponte (Brazil), Faye Hobson (Ireland) and Ruhi Jhunjhunwala (India) - were members of the inaugural cohort of the GCLP and the experience proved to be transformative for each of us in unexpected ways.

What is leadership if not a relationship and role we take within a community? We live in complicated times that urge us to embrace new forms of leadership. And since arts and culture can give us deep insights into how we form relationships and how we relate to the world and help us envision leadership styles beyond neoliberal approaches, leadership in this sector should also focus on caring and growing.

Arts management is an increasingly international and transcultural field of work where there are no concepts and definitions of Cultural Leadership valid and applicable to everyone. Therefore, this issue of Arts Management Quarterly wants to show different perceptions characterized by specific working realities, professional biographies and regional contexts.

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.

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.

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".

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.