MAAA Enrichment Project School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Why do we need the Enrichment Project?

In the next years, the Arts Administration program will require all students to travel abroad as a part of their curriculum. Additionally, many students curate exhibitions, submit papers to academic conferences, attend professional development conferences, and take internships outside of Chicago.  These important academic and professional experiences are often costly and can be a financial burden.  The Enrichment Project will provide some of these students with grants, which will help to alleviate this financial strain and encourage students to be a part of larger scholarly and professional arts communities.

Inspiration for the Project

The Enrichment Project was born in a time of transition in the Master of Arts in Arts Administration program. The class of 2007 will be the last class to graduate with the Master of Arts in Arts Administration (MAAA) degree. All of the classes to follow will have a Masters of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy (MAAAP).

As part of the restructuring of the program, rather than the Collaborative Project course requirement—a class that requires the students to work with each other and an outside entity on a collaborative project—collaboration will be implemented into all aspects of the coursework. Because the 2007 class will be the last group to take the specific course, the students unanimously decided to work together on one project: creating an endowment.

Beyond raising money, the group plans to enrich the MAAA program by connecting its students with other arts administrators and artists. Through endowing the MAAA program and raising awareness about the arts administration field, the Enrichment Project hopes to build bridges between administrators, artists, and the public, so that the connections that inspire and facilitate collaboration remain part of the framework of the MAAAP program.

Click here to meet the students...