The Tower of Babel or the Arabian Nights: The cultural background of the historical Near East seems almost magical. The contrast with its modern counterpart could hardly be more striking, where armed conflicts and religious fervour alternate with western oriented luxury. But how about Arts and Culture during this times of crisis, conflicts and change?

How many times in the last 12 months have you been to a concert? In Europe, 35% of you at least once, according to the findings of a recently published Eurobarometer survey on cultural access and participation.
Though, a ballet, a dance or an opera have been visited by 18%.
These findings raise the suspicion that concert and opera are losing audience. Lack of interest, lack of time and expense were supposed to be the main barriers to participation in cultural activities. It's time for us to take a closer look at the field of music education: Out now our current newsletter no. 119.

A lot of things have changed at Arts Management Network during the last months! Being ourselves involved with investigating new organisational structures and workflow we have decided to focus on employment-related topics in our latest newsletter. We will take a closer look at human resources, which means at the dissonances between different stakeholders, not only highlighting the entrepreneurs perspective but also giving voice to those having not (yet) reached the executive suite today.

Culture means change. And every cultural organisation should have the ability to change itself for many reasons: challenges in the society, expectations by the audience or stake holders, or sometimes even dissatisfaction by staff members. Our 117th edition of Arts Management Newsletter cares about change management.

We spoke with Martin Redlinger, director of marketing and sales at the Konzerthaus Berlin, who plays a leading role in an ongoing changing process. The interview shows how close the relationship is between the brand and the entire strategy of an arts organisation, and how long it takes to get results. Redlinger explains why the Konzerthaus needed a new positioning in the vibrant Berlin arts market, and how the team developed a new cultural brand. We also spoke with Julia Strysio about what the future of music festivals will look like? What has to be changed in a cultural format, which is probably the most flexible one?

In this newsletter you will read an interview with Julia Draganovic, who is the new director of the exhibition center Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Germany. She speaks about the profession as curator and art manager, her strategy to en- gage the audience, and her approach how to connect art and new media.

We also publish - as every year - the Summary Paper of the 4th Kufstein Summer School for Arts Management in Palea Epidavros/Greece, which took place in May 2013.

The 115th edition of our Arts Management Newsletter is published while we are in Berlin at the 7th Federal Congress for Cultural Policy in Germany. The last congress two years ago covered the importance of digitalization for the arts sector - from copyright issues via archival storage of cultural heritage to the huge communication and marketing opportunities possible with media and web 2.0. However, the upraise of the German cultural policy 2011 in the digital age seems to be already weak again. There is no living online debate with the community, although the topic of this year - cultural planning - fits to invite arts professionals and other people to discuss about. Perhaps the community have totally different preferences and priorities, what they like to support more or less. We were somehow impressed about a comment by Bill Flood yesterday, who answered our question about his experience with cultural planning in Portland. He said, culture at all has a creative power to support communication in a community. So it is necessary at all to make communication possible including those among the arts professionals and cultural policy makers themselves. Enjoy the interview with Bill Flood on page 2.

Do US-American Opera Houses operate more efficiently than German ones? Mounir Mahmalat, who studied at the Northeastern University in Boston, USA, as well as in Dusseldorf, Germany, investigated on the basis of twelve opera houses in both countries, if German institutions might take an example on US-American performing arts organizations who are said to operate in a more entrepreneurial manner. You can read this case study exclusively in our latest issue of the Arts Management Newsletter, the bi-mohthly magazine for the global perspective on arts and business.

Furthermore we can provide inside views with two totally different interviews. Our correspondent Kira Potowski met Koh Won-seok, an art curator in Seoul, who actually work for the new Arko Art Center in the capitol of South Korea. He takes our attention to a number of smaller Asian countries with art markets, which grow along the economic boom. Nikos Tsouchlos, the artistic adviser of the most important concert hall in Greece, underlines the current situation and role of the arts in a country, which suffer massively from the continuing economic and financial crunch. But Tsouchlos describes in the interview with Sven Scherz-Schade, how new practices can flourish and the roles of sociability and sharing are being re-examined.

Jazz musicians are often regarded as chronic loners, as individualists who fully concentrate on their art and work in ever-changing formations. However, to make that possible they need a fully functional, and in the best case, an internationally organized artistic network. In our latest newsletter, we exclusively publish a case study by Prof. Martin Lücke from Munich, which offers insight into how a European-wide partnership can look in practice.

All the worlds a crises? The real estate bubble, government depts, economic weakness and/or bank runs ... Many people are cheesed of those bad news. Is the art sector the last paradise? Yes and no. Yes, because the arts and creative sector is a value on its own, and a driving force for the growth of regions and countries. No, because many cultural institutions come under economic pressure so far.

In this scenario, isnt it time to give impulses for the future? We will do so with our special "Positive Impulses" this month. Even from Greece, where last month at the 3rd Kufstein Summer School young professionals worked on in- novation strategies in the arts. The aim was to reflect about the role of arts management within an economic crisis like now in, but not limited to Greece. We publish the summary paper exclusively in this newsletter issue.

Sustainability has become a buzz word in all areas of life ranging from sustainable finance to sustainable tourism or sustainable consumption. But "sustainable arts and culture" ... ?!

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.

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.

This newsletter issue includes a report about the new ways churches are being used culturally. We believe that in numerous regions, where churches are being forced to close their doors due to shrinking congregations, smart and careful concepts are needed to transform them. The article by the Kansas-based writer Wayne Hilburn offers several solutions. You will also be able to read an interview with Ancuta Vamesco, a project manager from Romania.

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.

As an educational major, it has been possible to study cultural management for nearly the past 50 years. Just looking at our education guide online, you will quickly get an overview of just how many degree programs there are currently in this area worldwide. This in turn has contributed to the fact that many students go abroad now to study, thereby making cultural industries increasingly international. It also leads us to ask the following questions: what are the different programs available and which subjects are important for students? Moreover, which fields of research are being developed in result of these teachings and in what ways has cultural management profited from such degree programs? These are just some of the questions we would like to investigate in the latest issue of Arts Management Newsletter.