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.

Feasible visions for the city of the future are the Senseable City Lab's main topic. The SCL is one of the interdisciplinary research and transfer centers affiliated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We talked with Prof. Dr. Carlo Ratti, founder and director, about how the SCL merges modern research and creativity in applicable developments.

In the cultural sector and in cultural policy, international cooperation is taken for granted. But to be truly fruitful, cultural exchange must be on an equal footing. But what does that mean? Are arts organizations really on a par with their partners? Is it really fair cooperation they pursue? With her award-winning doctoral thesis, Dr. Annika Hampel has triggered the discussion of a topic debated still much too rarely.

We talked to Emilio Piñango about cultural policies and audience development for the performing arts. He shared with us his experiences on the differences of studying arts management in Venezuela and Europe, and how the respective knowledge can be transferred to another region of the world.

Lisa Harborth and Alexis Rojas talk about the arts sector in Guatemala and its mutual relationship with politics and society, the influence of the international art market on local artists and the personal purposes of his art.