For Students Starting 2009 and Prior
Introduction
The Arts, Entertainment and Media Management (AEMM) Graduate Program was established in 1982 to help meet the need for proficient arts administrators, managers, and entrepreneurs.
Successful arts management is critical to the continued vitality of modern cultural institutions, creative enterprises, and arts organizations. If the public is to benefit, skilled arts managers must facilitate the work of artists. To achieve this, capable managers combine aesthetic sensibilities and business acumen. Their financial, legal, and organizational decisions help make it possible for artists to realize their vision and to share it with the public. In short, talented arts managers are partners in a collaborative process.
The training of such partners is the goal of the AEMM Graduate Program.
The AEMM Graduate Program offers the opportunity to specialize in Live & Performing Arts Management, Music Business Management, Visual Arts Management, Media Management, Arts in Youth and Community Development, and Arts Entrepreneurship. Each of the concentrations combines a strong conceptual emphasis with practical professional education.
AEMM graduate students learn the management methods and skills needed to function effectively in the increasingly complex environment of today’s cultural institutions, community organizations, and arts based businesses. AEMM graduate students also learn to appreciate the value of the arts; to understand the economic, social, and political climate in which they operate; and to anticipate the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Planning the Degree
The AEMM graduate curriculum reflects the professional experiences of the faculty: working artist-performers, successful managers, and executives of leading arts, entertainment, and media organizations.
The AEMM Graduate Program offers six areas of specialization leading to the Master of Arts Management (MAM) Degree:
The Arts Entrepreneurship concentration prepares students who are the future authors of our culture and society with the skills needed to create an arts-related commercial or non-profit organization. This concentration addresses the ability to cope with the technological, political, economic, and societal factors that affect both the aesthetics and business of the arts. The program is designed to take the dedication, perseverance, and passion possessed by the students and help them either 1) become self-employed artists or 2) engage in the arts and start arts businesses. The responsive AEMM curriculum and international programs bolster opportunities for such students.
The MAM in AYCD, the first of its kind in the United States, is a joint project between the Office of Community Arts Partnerships and the AEMM Department. The program helps build the next generation of leaders in youth arts. The course of study balances a thorough academic understanding of the youth arts filled with in-depth experience in community-based organizations throughout the course of study. The program focuses on three major areas of professional development; 1) practical skills necessary for operating an organization, 2) theoretical and philosophical aspects of youth development, and 3) the role of the arts in the lives of young people and the way they relate to society at large.
This concentration prepares students for leading management positions in the not-for-profit performing arts (orchestra, symphony, opera, dance, theatre) and for-profit live entertainment (pop/rock/rap concerts, Broadway theatre). Organizations in this field need leaders who can effectively build audiences and community support while fostering the creative process. The concentration will provide students with a broad understanding of the field and with the opportunity to develop expertise in the following areas: presenting, producing, touring, box office management, volunteers and board development, sponsorship negotiation, fundraising, grant writing, facility management, and cultural policy.
Convergence, deregulation, and globalization are transforming the way media is produced, distributed, and consumed, affecting both the business and artistic sides of the industry. The Media Management concentration examines the opportunities and threats resulting from these changes, preparing its graduates to be innovative decision-makers, capable of balancing the commercial and creative sides of media. The Media Management concentration leads to professions across all mediums: broadcast, film, video, Internet, print, and other specialty areas. Students may take graduate concentration courses in film/video, TV, radio, and graphic and web design to supplement their core management courses. The student’s faculty advisor, the Program Director, or the AEMM Department Chairperson must first approve courses taken outside of the department.
Students interested in the music industry should select the Music Business Concentration (MBC) as their specialty. Through their course of study potential MBC students are exposed to the challenges facing the Music Industry today and in the future. The MBC leads to professional opportunities in Producing Recorded Music, Music Supervision (with an emphasis on Music Publishing), Music Marketing and Promotions, the Music Industry and new media/technologies, and a broad focus on developing entrepreneurial attributes applicable to the music industry. With AEMM Faculty advisor guidance, students may take additional courses outside of the MBC to supplement their area of focus. These courses may include, but are not limited to: Presenting Live Performances, Protools Workshop for Producers, and The Press, Consumers, and the Music Business.
Visual arts organizations are blurring the boundaries among the disciplines. They are addressing an increasingly global society, reaching new audiences through programming and marketing, and using new media and technology in all aspects of institutional management. The Visual Arts Management (VAM) concentration anticipates and responds to the trends in the visual arts field, and prepares graduates for careers in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Museums, galleries, auction houses, government agencies, historic sites, design studios, cultural tourism, community organizations, and small visual arts businesses all fall under the umbrella of the VAM concentration.
