Arts Management Career Development

Certificate Program

The California State University, East Bay Certificate in Arts Management Career Development serves both aspiring arts administrators and those currently in the field who are seeking career development opportunities. This online program is currently partnered with CSUEB Continuing Education. The aim of the program is to meet the increasingly challenging demands of those who manage cultural and public service organizations. In the future, we plan to offer more courses oriented to the commercial arts industry.

While the commercial arts represent a significant business in California, the USA, and the world, the average growth rate of employment in the nonprofit sector already outstrips that in the business and government sectors nationally. The arts themselves comprise a growing segment of the nonprofit sector. As the needs of arts organizations grow, there will be an increasing need for qualified and knowledgeable board members, administrators, staff and volunteers.

The Arts Management Career Development Program will engage students in practical lessons that apply directly to issues and practice on the job. Classes will be taught by professionals recommended by a network of professionals from our affiliates network. In order to serve the widest possible audience, the courses in this program will be offered online. The program will also partner with a network of CSU campuses and affiliated arts organizations that offer related subject matter.

Anyone may take the courses for continuing education purposes or to pursue the certificate. Periodic informational meetings and online advising will be scheduled for those seeking to pursue the certificate.

Program Objectives

The following objectives are drawn from a range of certificate courses. By successfully completing the certificate, students will understand how to:

• Manage and provide leadership in administrative departments of large arts organizations or manage or provide leadership in small to medium arts organizations.
• Construct useful and realistic programmatic and operating budgets for an arts organization or department.
• Balance fiscal responsibility with artistic and programmatic goals.
• Use basic financial and accounting terms in the discussion of an arts program's maintenance and growth.
• Read and interpret the relationships of earned and contributed revenue on standard income statements and balance sheets.
• Apply practical understanding of the process of arts policy development in connection with federal, state and local legislative and budget actions.
• Create, implement, and deal with policies of governmental arts agencies and non-profit arts organizations.
• Develop ongoing awareness of policies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as international agencies and arts advocacy organizations.
• Design arts programs and administrative procedures that address current and potential policy.
• Recognize advocacy strategies and participate in policy-related communications.
• Research, write and present in the "real world" arts management environment.
• Develop a common direction in an arts organization for artistic, administrative, and board members.
• Balance and communicate mission, goals, objectives and strategy in various types short- and long-range plans so others will incorporate their values with organizational outcomes.
• Organize and use retreats in the learning stage of a planning process, as well as planning templates that can be applied in a variety of arts situations.
• Write compelling mission, goal, and objective statements that can be measured against arts-related activities.
• Identify appropriate markets for an arts organization.
• Clarify the reasons a market segment should support an arts group.
• Use common marketing tools to reach a target market.
• Develop effective approaches to sell/communicate the case for your company/product to each targeted market.
• Identify and research specific discipline related issues.
• Differentiate between not for profit and for profit entities and projects.
• Access arts industry networks in the public and private sectors.
• Take initiative in different kinds of organizational situations
• Apply case analysis to arts- related lessons learned
• Recognize best practices that can be applied to leveraging success in the arts industry
• Identify and participate in the elements of building coalition.
• Become knowledgeable about current local, state and federal arts policy issues past and present
• Prepare an advocacy plan and response strategy on a nonpartisan basis to a specific arts action item
• Approach creating an articulate message concerning the nature of an artistic product: its creators, history and current environment for further development.
• Access advocacy networks
• Be aware of arts specific workplace issues and the employee rights
• Access arts related human resource information including insurance, medical care, union negotiations, dispute management and benefits plans.
• Recognize and implement effective human resources strategies within limitations and parameters of the law and the arts industry.
• Develop a philosophy of arts education
• Identify the key players and playing field in the community
• Apply perceptions of different roles, such as classroom teacher/artists/ teaching artists, to opportunities for successful networking for effective arts education.

Who Should Attend

AMCarD was created to aid early and mid-career arts administrators in reaching the next level of management. The Core courses are designed around management principles and knowledge common to a range of arts organizations. Option courses grew out of input collected in a widely distributed survey of California arts managers.

Program Highlights