Arts, Festival and Cultural Management

Entry requirements

A UK honours degree or equivalent OR significant work experience in cultural organisations or festivals.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

This course is suitable for graduates who wish to add a vocational management emphasis to their first degree and for those with equivalent professional qualifications or experience. You may find it particularly suitable if you studied the arts and humanities at undergraduate level and want to move into arts and cultural management. The course also works well for people with significant workplace experience who want to gain a formal qualification in a flexible manner.

The work of arts and cultural managers is becoming more complex and significant in our rapidly changing domestic and international environment. Cultural organisations and festivals are in a period of fundamental, pervasive and long-term change; managers must deal with a host of dramatic and often contradictory demands and challenges. There is a growing need for graduates with more holistic and integrated perspectives regarding the management of cultural organisations and the political, economic, social and environmental conditions in which they function.

This course has been developed in response to this need and is rooted in a belief that great leaders in the cultural sector will recognise the value of management while acknowledging that approaches may need to be adapted to meet the particularities of cultural organisations and festivals.

By encouraging you to become critically reflective, the course will develop your knowledge of the contemporary issues affecting the management of arts organisations and festivals and equip you with the practical management skills that are essential for developing a career in the field. Mindful of the need for students to develop vocational skills, a number of assignments are orientated towards developing the knowledge and skills required to become an effective practitioner in the field. In addition, students are required to arrange and undertake practical experience within cultural organisations to complement their studies.