Arts & Cultural Management MA at Kings College London

Overview

Study in one of the world’s cultural capitals on a course that's been specially 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.

Key benefits

• Head start your career through focused teaching.
• Insights into management, planning and leadership.
• Gain knowledge of arts and culture across national and international contexts.
• Strong links with London’s cultural organisations.
• Lectures and workshops delivered by leading arts and cultural industry professionals.
• Emphasis on creativity and arts-based learning.

Description

This innovative new 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 passioned 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.

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 and project-group activities.

Whilst the MA does not include an internship, we have a dedicate member of the academic staff 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 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.  Previous dissertation partners include Battersea Arts Centre, Black Live Theatre, Arts Council England, Dash Arts, King’s Cultural Institute, Live Cinema, Glyndebourne, Mahogany Opera Group, Lambeth Archives, OnRoad Media, Royal Society, Arts Cabinet, Iconem, and Greater London Authority.

Career prospects

We expect the graduates of this new MA to move on to arts and cultural managerial and other roles (e.g. producer, audience development, marketing officer, event coordinator, researcher) in a wide variety of institutional contexts and international locations. Graduates from this Department have thus far gone on to a wide range of roles in the cultural and creative industries, for example, in museums and galleries, arts funding, performing arts management, freelance research, creative business development, arts administration, publishing, art marketing and local governance. Several of our students go on to do further academic research.