MA in Arts & Culture: Arts, Policy and Cultural Entrepreneurship

Art is inherently public. In this programme, you will study and reflect upon how public arts policy, arts management, arts marketing and education affect the realisation of artistic values in society.

Traditionally, the arts have been regarded as a means for representing individual and collective identities, and for the reflection on, and critical assessment of, society. Increasingly, however, the arts are regarded as entertainment (e.g. based on notions such as the 'experience economy'), or as a means for the creative development of local economies ('creative and culture industries' and 'creative class'), or as a form of social engineering.

The Arts, Policy and Cultural Entrepreneurship track focuses on the organizing of art and the public role of art in today's societies. Using methods from critical sociology, public policy studies, management studies, and cognitive perspectives on the arts you will learn to critically reflect upon the values that influence local and global art practices. On the basis of theory and empirical work, you will learn to analyse, criticise, and reflect upon the existing practices for art's sustenance, organisation, and dissemination. You will learn to devise strategies on how the arts should be managed, marketed, and addressed by public policy agents in order to strengthen their role in society.