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City University of London

Arts Policy & Management

Level 7 Frobisher Crescent
The Barbican
London, EC2Y 8HB
Great Britain
Main Phone: 44-171-477-8751
Main E-Mail: M.W.Quine@city.ac.uk

Degree/Credential: Graduate (MA in Arts Management, MA in Museum and Gallery Management, PhD and Master of Philosophy Research Degrees )
Web Site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/

Program Director: MQuine [link available to AAAE members only]

Program Goals and Objectives

The program at the Department of Arts Policy and Management is the longest-established University Department in Britain dedicated to teaching, study and research in the field of arts and cultural policy and management. Its first course began in 1969, and the Department now has a range of four extended graduate courses, a student body numbering around 170 and drawn from many different countries, and a range of research activities.

City University itself is located in the heart of London, in the square mile of the City of London, in the Barbican Arts Centre which is the London home of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as containing three cinemas, a major art gallery and other exhibition spaces, and a major public library. Therefore the Department has the Barbican Centre as well as the whole of London as its immediate. With some 6000 students registered, it has strong links with the business community and a well-developed concern to respond to the requirements of professionally-relevant education.

The Department has grown and developed over time. The postgraduate Diploma Course is the major vocational program and the intention of this course is to take people, mostly in their mid-20s and already in arts management positions, and give them enhanced skills and confidence to deal with both the immediate skills and the wider political, cultural and economic contexts of the arts. There are three M.A. course programs: Arts Management, Museum and Gallery Management, and Arts Criticism. These were, in that sequence, later developments, and they are aimed less at immediate vocational and career development than more at a wider, more academic study of contexts and philosophies. Research Degrees (M.Phil and Ph.D.) are also available. The department is pleased to welcome students from many countries - 20 in 1996 - and seeks to facilitate cross-country exchange. It is also an active member in a European network of similar courses.

Administration of the Program

Teaching is carried out by a team of nine full-time academic staff, up to a dozen adjunct staff drawn from the professional arts management sector, and a wide range of occasional visitors also drawn from relevant parts of the sector.

Curriculum

Postgraduate Diploma Course in Arts Administration

This course lasts one academic year, starting in October. It is a full-time course which contains a ten week internship which is - as usual in Britain - not paid. The internship can
be in Britain, or alternatively in one of the Department's close European partners, or indeed in any other country where the Department can feel assured that the experience and the supervision will be appropriate to the student's need.

The course is structured in such a way as not to be art-form specific. It has the intention of helping young arts management professionals as well as those seeking a career-change into the arts by giving the keys to a wide range of routes in the sector.

Key courses during the year include finance and financial management, law, the management of human resources, education and the arts, arts marketing, arts and cultural policy, and an extended review of the framework within which the arts are provided and supported. Additional optional units include European Arts Policy, Museum and Gallery Management, Arts Audiences, Women and the Arts, and Arts Criticism.

Course assessment is carried out by five pieces of written course work, two three-hour examinations, a review of the outcomes of the internship, and a thesis of around 10,000 words.

MA In Museum and Gallery Management
(Programme established 1986: approx. 30 full-time and part-time students)
This post-experience ("mid-career") modular course of 120 Master's level credits is offered in four patterns:

* One year full-time (11 months from October to August inclusive)
* Two years part-time (23 months as above)
* Modular - one module at a time over a maximum of four years
* "AMA Fast-track" - one year part-time for those with the (UK) Museums Association's postgraduate Diploma (Associate of the Museums Association - AMA), who are granted a part-exemption of 40 Master's credits under Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL).

The course aims to develop critical judgement and competence in respect of contemporary policy and management issues and practices relating to institutions and organisations across the whole of the museums, heritage and visual arts sectors, whether in the public, non-profit or commercial sectors. Applicants are expected to have significant relevant professional or managerial experience.

Subject to that pre-condition students are recruited from a wide range of backgrounds: directors, curators, conservators, collections managers, registrars, exhibition or education officers from public or non-profit museums and galleries, officials of government ministries and agencies, local authorities, and from auction houses and art dealers. The course usually admits in addition a small number of people each year who have substantial experience in other fields, but who now wish to exercise their established professional specialisation in the cultural sector, particularly people from business and management backgrounds. In recent years these have been drawn from a wide range of professions including finance and accountancy, law, human resources management, marketing, visual arts or design practice, and architecture.

The two compulsory modules (each of one academic term and 20 credits) are Museum and Gallery Framework - a review of museum, gallery and wider cultural policy and organisation both in the UK and the wider world, and Museum Management - which examines both the principles and practice of the five key areas of managerial activity and competence: managing people, managing finance, managing resources, managing information and managing one's self. Each module is assessed by means of a written assignment and an unseen "open book" examination of 3 hours duration.

Two option modules (again of one term's duration, 20 credits and similarly assessed) are chosen from a wide range: currently these normally including Art and Design and Commerce, Education and Museums and Galleries, Finance and Marketing, Policy-Making, Managing the Visual Arts, European Arts Human Resources Management and European Arts.

The final part of the course is an extended research study and thesis on an approved topic relating to Museum and/or Gallery policy or management (around 15,000 words, 40 credits).

There is also the option of leaving the programme at the end of the four taught modules (ie. 80 credits) with the award of a Diploma in Museum and Gallery Management.

MA In Museum and Gallery Management (Visual Arts Management) (Programme established 1994: approx. 10 full-time and part-time students)

This MA degree parallels closely the main MA in Museum and Gallery Management as outlined above, except that the compulsory modules are Museum and Gallery Framework and Managing the Visual Arts, with the Museum and Gallery Management module an approved option module. For this option the thesis should be related to gallery or art issues, (including public art and commissioning).

Again, there is the option of terminating with a Diploma on completion of the four taught modules.

Doctor Of Philosophy (PhD) and Master Of Philosophy Research degrees (Programme established 1977: approx. 35 full-time and part-time students)

The Department has both full-time and part-time research students investigating a very wide range of subjects across almost the whole field of cultural policy and management.

Completed theses are listed at: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/theses.html

Admissions

Applications are welcome from any country. An undergraduate degree is required, or, alternatively, at least five years of substantial progressive managerial or supervisory experience. Those whose native language is not English must reassure the Department of the quality of their spoken and written English. Applications forms and further information can be obtained from the Department, and the normal closing date is March first for the year's October intake.
Posted by MQuine on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 02:53