In a rapidly changing and globalizing society, arts organizations are being called on to respond to new art forms and ideas, audiences, ethical challenges and political and economic difficulties. The MA in Arts Administration and Policy is an interdisciplinary program that invites extended and focused theoretical and practical explorations into culture, policy, institutions and their practice.
The program provides a teaching and learning environment in which the role of the administrator and manager is understood as critically engaged and proactive. Our approach studies the role that institutions and policies play in shaping culture, through a grounded analysis of concrete practices and examples. The program strongly encourages students to think beyond existing institutional and policy structures and assumptions, to work flexibly in a dynamic cultural and institutional landscape. The program is designed starting from a conviction that neither the short-term interests of policy-makers nor the theoretical debates of the academy should circumscribe cultural policy studies, and that neither should exist absent from considerations of and interaction with artistic practice and public debate.
The Masters of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy program offers a range of teaching and learning approaches that include: lectures and seminars, individual study and research, theoretical analysis and practical experience, team- and project-focused work, international travel, tutorial work on thesis, student presentations, and lectures by and tutorials with visiting speakers. Approximately 40% of the coursework is offered within the department and the remainder intersects with other departments of the school.
Among its distinctive features, the MA in Arts Administration and Policy
- Emanates from a conviction that the arts can and should play a valuable role in contemporary society;
- Approaches the question of contemporary culture within a global framework;
- Situates the activity of administration in the context of artistic, political and economic frameworks;
- Works from a basis in ethical questioning about the role of culture, its deployment and management, its administration and utility;
- Facilitates an active, ongoing dialogue with scholars and practitioners preeminent in a variety of disciplines both directly related and tangent to the program;
- Provides a rigorous academic program in a creative, art-making environment;
- Addresses academic questions through a combination of theoretical and practical investigations, including extensive and direct contact with professional environments;
- Provides a program structure that is both sharply focused within the department and organically linked to the art-making practices and debates across the entire school;
- Takes an active interest in all forms and media of contemporary cultural production.
A steady stream of distinguished guest speakers and lecturers complements the course work through the MAAAP program’s Colloquium Series. Recent guests have included Michael Hardt, Toby Miller, David Wilson, Steve Kurtz, Behroze Gandhy, Andras Szanto, James Cuno, Alberta Arthurs, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Joan Harris, Saskia Sassen, Okwui Enwezor, Luis Camnitzer, Andrea Fraser, Vera Frenkel, Donald Preziosi, Mark Tribe and others.
Many of the faculty are professional arts administrators at leading cultural institutions, and the program maintains active relationships with notable cultural institutions regionally, nationally and abroad. Students acquire hands-on experience through field work with local, national and international organizations, including Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Department of Cultural Affairs, Symphony Orchestra, Steppenwolf Theatre and Renaissance Society; New York City’s Creative Capital Foundation, Ford Foundation, P.S. 1, Whitney Museum of American Art, Creative Time and New Museum of Contemporary Art; Washington DC’s Smithsonian Institution and Corcoran Gallery; San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; London’s Tate Gallery; Christie’s in Bombay, India; Project 304 in Bangkok; and the Istanbul Biennial.
Required courses, seminars and workshops are generally held in the evening to accommodate the schedules of working professionals, although specific study trips and field work require additional commitments. The MAAAP Program, which normally takes two years to complete, seeks mature students with a firm commitment to the arts. An educational background or work experience in the arts is highly desirable. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution or an equivalent.
Recent Thesis Titles
- Latvian Cultural Policy and Production of Individual and Society
- The West’s East: The Narratives Of Identity Surrounding Chinese Contemporary Artists in Diaspora
- Beyond the Logic of Multiculturalism as Separatism: The Case of Korean Cultural Policy in The U.S Since 1979
- Are We Really Listening: Radio Broadcasting, Policy and Its Future in the Arts.
- From Plunderphonics To Mash-Ups - Sample Based Music vs. Copyright Law
- Philanthropy in Ireland; A Case Study of the Irish Museum of Modern Art
- Projecting Citizenship: Cultivating and Regenerating Citizens at the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival
- Contemporary Artist Assistants and Modern-Day Art Factories: Who Really Makes Today's Art?
- The Artist’s Intermediary as a Deliberative Practitioner : A Study Into the Support Structures for New Artwork Development
- Cultural Heritage Management Through The Lens of Cultural Identity: The Case of Spain
- Repositioning the Pervasive Public: Conditions of Agency and Intervention
- When Art/Ists Meet Where the Continents Meet:The Social Impact of the Istanbul Biennial and Turkish Cultural Policy for Contemporary Arts
Program Curriculum
The MAAAP program consists of five integrated sets of curricula:
I. Critical and Policy Studies (18 credits)
II. Focus Study (6 credits)
III. Management Studies (9 credits)
IV. Research and Professional Practice (9 credits)
V. Electives (6 credits)
I. Critical and Policy Studies (18 credits): This area consists of a series of courses and colloquia in which students examine the theoretical, historical, ethical and political issues that surround the arts today. Through readings, guest speakers and discussion groups, students are encouraged to debate the key policy issues that inform both the field of culture and the discipline of arts administration itself. Exploring alternative forms of arts organizing, and developing communication, presentation and display skills and a critical language for addressing social change through culture are among the specific goals of this section of the MAAAP program. The requirements in this area are as follows:
- Cultural Policy Studies: 6 credits
- Communication/Rhetoric/Modes of Presentation: 3 credits*
- Contemporary Theory/Philosophy: 3 credits
- International seminar: 3 credits
- Departmental Colloquia: 3 credits
II. Focus Study (6 credits): Students select coursework from across the SAIC curriculum** in topics that support and augment their area of principal interest and professional goals. These focus credits might be, for example, the analysis of Art Institutions or of administrative issues and practices in Public, and/or Urban, settings. These examples would correspond to students, in the former case, who are interested in gallery and museum career paths, whereas those interested in public agencies, festivals, and so on might concentrate as suggested in the latter. In addition, students with a studio background can focus their work in the program by developing a focus that incorporates their artistic practice as a central element of their evolving administrative expertise.
III. Management Studies (9 credits): A Management studies requirement proceeds from the critical frameworks established in the other required elements and is a skills-based curriculum. Students will complete 9 credits that match their research and professional goals, choosing from a course menu that includes Financial Management, Marketing, Managing Arts Organizations, Fundraising and Proposal Writing and Project Management.
IV. Research and Professional Practice (9 credits): Research and Professional Practice consists of three components that apply the student’s growing knowledge of arts administration to actual work experience in the field. The requirements in this area are as follows:
V. Electives (6 credits)
* Program faculty identify courses offered each semester across the school that may satisfy this requirement
** Students work closely with program faculty to select courses which meet individual research goals from offerings across the school
