This course examines an array of contemporary approaches to building the economic, physical, and social dimensions of cities structured around creativity, culture, and the arts. Historical underpinnings, trajectories, and problems of these approaches are explored through lectures, readings, student research, and discussions.
How does art interact with law? How does law impact artistic creation? How can arts administrators ensure that their organization legally protects itself? Understanding the legal environment in which arts organizations exist and artists create empowers arts administrators to make sound and reasoned decisions. Throughout this course, students will be exposed to a variety of legal topics related to artistic creation and the managing of arts organizations.
Most nonprofit organizations earn at least half of their total annual revenue from contributed sources, including individuals, foundations, governments, and corporations. This course will provide a comprehensive survey of the fundraising process for nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on arts & cultural organizations, and will introduce students to the philanthropic landscape writ large.
Arts managers are consistently faced with the challenge of connecting arts offerings with an audience. Understanding the possible markets and developing strategies to reach the desired audience are part of every arts organization's primary administrative activities. Throughout this course, students will explore theories and frameworks crucial to the marketing function including product development, market research, consumer behavior, brand development, pricing strategies, investigate consumer behavior and the conduct primary and secondary marketing research for an arts organization.
Organization theory examines the inner workings of institutions in an attempt to understand organization functionality. For this course, theories are drawn from numerous disciplines including arts management, business administration, nonprofit management, and public administration. Additionally, theories may be classical, foundational, modern, postmodern, and/or critical. Specifically, this course explores various organizational theories that are relevant to running and studying nonprofit arts organizations.
Financial management is a central function of successful arts management. It is the foundation in which human, physical, and financial resources are maintained and monitored. In the nonprofit sector, the relationship of "mission to money" is a key conceptual framework that must be understood by arts managers and will be emphasized in this course. In addition, arts managers are the source of financial information to both internal and external stakeholders, and successful financial analysis is essential for sound strategic planning and governance.
People are the basis of arts organizations. Understanding the factors that determine individual actions and interactions, being able to solve problems, capitalize on new opportunities and reach goals is necessary for being a successful leader in a work environment. As such, this course focuses on the planned, systematic process in which applied organizational theory and behavioral science principles and practices are introduced into organizations, toward the goal of increasing organizational and individual effectiveness.
From brochures to web sites to video, arts organizations are investing more time and resources in effectively communicating with the public. As such, arts administrators must be skills in utilizing current technology to convey messages. In this course, students will learn a variety of software applications that will aid in the successful creation of print materials, web sites, video, and other multi-media presentations. Additionally, the course will introduce concepts of design principles and relevant theories.
This course will help students develop the necessary skills for soliciting contributions from individuals by focusing on the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and acknowledgement of contributions to arts organizations. Students will learn how to identify potential donors and create a "case for giving" that aligns with the arts organization's mission before creating targeted fundraising campaigns. The course will also include creative and effective methods of retaining donors.
This course will help students develop the necessary skills for soliciting contributions from individuals by focusing on the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and acknowledgement of contributions to arts organizations. Students will learn how to identify potential donors and create a "case for giving" that aligns with the arts organization's mission before creating targeted fundraising campaigns. The course will also include creative and effective methods of retaining donors.
