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Overview

Delivered from one of the world’s cultural capitals, this MA is designed to meet the complex needs of today’s arts and cultural managers and professionals. With its distinctive mix of theoretical, and arts-based knowledge and skills development, you will learn how to apply creative leadership and ethical principles in managing artistic excellence, cultural heritage, audience diversity and financial sustainability, at local and global levels. This innovative master’s course is specifically designed to meet the needs of arts and cultural professionals and managers in different kinds of arts and cultural organisations. You will engage with theoretical and practical debates surrounding different aspects of arts and cultural management, including audiences, access, finance, cultural policy, cultural production, cultural value, and so forth. You will learn the vital importance of creativity, given the increasingly global nature of competition, as well as the opportunities and challenges posed by new technologies. Our Arts & Cultural Management MA is suitable for you, whether you are new to the field or if you already have relevant professional experience. You will be passionate about culture and arts and interested in working in any of the following cultural organisations, including museums, art galleries, festivals, theatres, performance arts venues and cultural policy bodies.

Course detail

The course works in partnership with a range of arts organisations from across the city to bridge the gap between theory and practice and offer you unparalleled exposure to the practicalities of cultural management. Through our required modules (particularly the module ‘Cultural Management: the Experience’) and some of our optional modules, you will engage with experienced cultural professionals and managers working in leading London-based arts organisations during talks, study visits (where possible and subject to government guidelines) and project-group activities. Please note that if study visits are not possible due to Covid-19 there will be alternative activities, for instance, online tours, behind-the-scenes webinars, etc. Whilst the MA does not include an internship, we usually have a dedicate member of the academic staff (although this is not guaranteed due to Covid-19) who assists students interested in acquiring practical experience through sharing information about competitive internship opportunities offered by our cultural partners or other organisations across London. In parallel to the programme, previous students from within the Department have succeeded in independently securing internships at a wide variety of arts and cultural institutions, including the National Theatre, Barbican Centre, British Council, British Film Institute, Hayward Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Screen Digest, The British Museum, CIDA (Cultural Industries Development Agency), MTV, Donmar Warehouse, Google and the V&A Museum, which gives you an idea of the exciting opportunities on offer. Each year students usually have the opportunity to apply for a selective-entry Collaborative Dissertation Project, organised with external arts, media and heritage organisations. The collaborative dissertation project enables students to work with a cultural partner on a live research brief that informs their final MA dissertations.