How Are We Doing? Managing Culture and the Arts in Ireland, 2008 is a practitioner-focused forum aimed at giving cultural sector managers, collectively and personally, an opportunity to take stock of their work in the wider context of policy and practice. The conference will enable practitioners to reflect on their management environment, as well as the skills, training and lifestyle issues that affect arts and cultural managers in contemporary Ireland. Sessions include presentations and keynote addresses by internationally renowned scholars and arts managers, and opportunities to meet and network with colleagues in the field.

This conference is planned as an open process continuing up to, during, and after the conference, beginning with an opportunity to feed back to us on this blog. So have a look at our conference programme and have your say if you feel there is an issue we have missed, or one that you consider urgent or needs prioritisation. This site is intended to offer a platform for the sharing of knowledge, experience, and insight into the achievements, current standing, prospects and challenges of arts and cultural management in Ireland.

From the perspective of the School of Art History and Cultural Policy, our hope is that the dialogue and networks created through this conference will allow us to better identify important policy, training and research issues, and answer the questions:

What is our current position?
How have we been doing?
How can we best go forward from here?

Conference outputs will be disseminated via online publication of a conference report, which will further inform the development of future professional conferencing and seminar sessions for the sector.