The Master of Arts in Arts Management trains skilled administrators, executives, and entrepreneurs who understand what is needed to build and guide the next generation of creative industries.
The MA in Arts Management provides you with the tools to create, facilitate, and evaluate work in the visual and performing arts. With applied skills in administration, finance, and programming, graduates of the Arts Management program emerge prepared for fulfilling careers in nonprofits and social enterprise, public agencies and foundations, arts collectives and creative communities.
A partnership between Claremont Graduate University and Sotheby’s Institute of Art provides you unparalleled access to diverse leaders and institutions in LA’s thriving arts and cultural scene. Faculty from LA’s professional arts community complement the expertise of scholars from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Drucker School, the School of Arts and Humanities, and the Getty Leadership Institute.
The core courses provide a foundation in business and management skills essential to careers in the creative industries. Our personalized, seminar-style learning environment begins with coursework in art management dynamics, public policy, evaluation, marketing and communications, fundraising, and strategic planning. The core is fortified by elective courses and extracurricular programs that speak to your passions and career goals. You also benefit from access to the full curriculum of the MA in Art Business.
Program Highlights
The core of the Arts Management program consists of management courses like finance and accounting, marketing, organizational behavior, and economics of strategy—the fundamentals of any elite business education—coupled with Sotheby’s Institute’s signature courses in art and its markets.
As an arts management student, you will have access to the full curricula of both the art business and arts management programs.
The Arts Consulting Practicum capstone course enables you to gain experience as an arts consultant with such highly regarded cultural institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Stage Alliance, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.
Program At a Glance
UNITS
48 units
COMPLETION TIME
1.5 years
COURSES BEGIN
Fall
DEGREE AWARDED
MA in Arts Management
Featured Courses
ARMGT 410
Creative Industries Colloquium
Provides students with an introduction to the curriculum concentrations offered in the program that may be pursued in subsequent semesters.
MGT 321
Marketing Management
Examines the process of strategic marketing management and provides tools and methods to examine marketing environments, understand consumer and organizational buying behavior, develop and promote new products, manage existing products, and more.
ARMGT 301
Legal Foundations for Creative Industries
Provides an overview of major art law and business topics, including the U.S. legal system, contracts, intellectual property, artist rights, authenticity and title, First Amendment, business structures, and business challenges.
ARMGT 350
Theory & Practice of Institutional Leadership
Explores the theories, processes, and practices behind strategic planning and decision making in arts organizations, including management strategies, business plans, fundraising, human resources, facilities, and program development.
MGT 590
Managing Audience Engagement
Examines trends and experiments in audience engagement, including planning and implementation, technology-support systems, data management, analytics and data-driven decision making, impact measurement, and communications strategies.
ARMGT 309
Startup Studio
Offers students an open, collaborative environment in which to develop ideas and to learn from one another while completing their final MA capstone projects.
Curriculum
Semester 1
Creative Industries Colloquium (2 units)
Finance & Accounting for Creative Industries (4 units)
Economics of Strategy (2 units)
Legal Foundations for Creative Industries (4 units)
Marketing Management (2 units)
Intro to Art Business Dynamics (2 units)
Semester 2
Research & Evaluation for the Arts (4 units)
Pre-Practicum or Social & Cultural Entrepreneurship (2 units)
Arts and Cultural Policy (2 units)
Electives (8 units)
Semester 3
Capstone: Startup Studio or Practicum (4 units)
Strategic Planning for Arts Organizations (4 units)
Fundraising 1 (2 units)
Electives (6 units)
Sample Electives*
Theory & Practice of Institutional Leadership
Performing Arts Management & Presenting
Arts Management Masterclass: Cross-Sector Solutions for the Arts
Social & Digital Media Marketing
Advanced Topics: Brand Collaborations and Partnerships
Strategic Communications for Art, Culture, and Media
Finance & Accounting for Nonprofits
Arts Education Management
*Elective offerings are subject to change from semester to semester as new electives are added and some electives are discontinued.
Arts Management On Site
Learn from arts professionals and practitioners outside of Los Angeles in other global centers, such as Chicago, London, Portland, New York, and Austin.
Museum Studies: Curatorial Training
Take courses led by museum directors or curators held onsite as well as on CGU’s campus. Learn to develop the intellectual and scholarly mission of an exhibition, the selection of materials to exhibit, and the communication of this intellectual content to the museum’s audience.
Arts Consulting Practicum
The capstone of the program, the Arts Consulting Practicum puts you in the field. You work as a consultant with local and regional cultural institutions in positions that are often paid. You will analyze an institution’s workings and missions and report on your findings and recommendations. Recent consultations include:
The Durfee Foundation
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles Stage Alliance
City of West Hollywood Cultural Affairs
Los Angeles County Arts Commission
The Master’s Project
Students in the Arts Management degree program may choose to complete their degrees with a Master’s Project rather than the consulting practicum. As is the Master’s Project for the Art Business degree, this is a project of your own design, and it is often directly related to your intended career path upon graduation. It can be completed individually or in small teams.
Beginning with workshops in the second semester, you generate ideas for arts initiatives, education programs, nonprofit startups, research reports, or other projects, which are then refined into proposals for the MP. From the project’s description to its final format, you or your team determine the shape and nature of the MP.
In the third semester, you take part in the Master’s Project Seminar, where you regularly share and critique participants’ projects as they move toward completion. At the end of the semester, every student or team submits a final deliverable (e.g. strategic plan, proposal, report, white paper, etc.) and gives an oral presentation of the MP to a panel of invited faculty, arts professionals, and leaders.
The MP is both the final academic assignment and the first piece of professional work in your future career.
Faculty & Research
Jonathan Neil
Director, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Los Angeles
Research Interests
Modern and contemporary art, Architectural history, International art market, Critical writing/theory, History of photography
