Support Your Art Administration Career Ambitions through Focused Paths of Study
While Boston University’s Master of Science in Arts Administration does not offer formal concentrations or specializations, students can choose electives to align their program with specific interests within the visual arts, performing arts, or fundraising areas. Not ready for a full degree program? Pursue a four-course graduate certificate and develop the skills to jump-start your career with a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management, a Graduate Certificate in Arts Marketing, a Graduate Certificate in Commercial Theater Development, or a Graduate Certificate in Fundraising.
A career working within, guiding, or overseeing an arts organization requires one to be nimble and curious. You must possess a sense of purpose—and Boston University’s Master of Science in Arts Administration, offered through BU’s Metropolitan College (MET), can help you sharpen that focus through a curriculum designed to meet your particular needs, interests, and ambitions.
There are many ways to individualize your studies within BU MET’s Arts Administration master’s program. You can craft your education through the electives you choose to take, the areas of focus you pursue within your coursework, and, finally, whether you choose to couple your Arts Administration master’s degree with one of BU MET’s four related arts administration graduate certificates.
There are certain principles all Arts Administration graduate students will become familiar with, thanks to a set of core courses that prepare you for a successful career in an arts organization. All BU MET Arts Administration master’s degree students come away from the program with a strong command of the tools and methodologies that help public, nonprofit, and commercial arts enterprises achieve their missions. They learn the history of nonprofit and commercial arts organizations as well as the ways they are structured and how they work, along with the legal regulations that apply to them. BU Arts Administration students also learn best practices when it comes to fundraising and financial management. Marketing, networking, international policy—all of it is fundamental to the Arts Administration program.
After completing those broad foundational strokes, you can begin to add detail through your choice of elective courses.
Blaze Your Own Path as an Arts Administrator
While there is a universal skillset all students develop as part of Metropolitan College’s Arts Administration graduate degree program, the elective courses you take to complete your degree, and the ways you choose to focus your studies, enable you to develop your own bespoke set of strengths, under the guidance of our deeply experienced instructors.
Some of these capabilities will be organizational. Others might relate to interpersonal strengths and relationships. Global frameworks and governmental policy are also paths you could take. Marketing, finance, and fundraising constitute another avenue to explore.
In addition to the core courses, MS in Arts Administration students also take six courses chosen from more than two dozen electives. These courses range in subjects and include exciting topics like Political and Public Advocacy for the Arts (MET AR 730), which explores the politics of arts and culture and the ways that cultural organizations can successfully engage with government; Current Trends in the Performing Arts Business (MET AR 753), which delves into the dynamic forecast-informed marketing methodologies being deployed by the producers and artists of today; and Creative Startups: From Idea to Impact (MET AR 789), an entrepreneurship-focused foray into the process of establishing creative businesses that teaches the practical skills required to succeed.
As part of your BU MET Arts Administration curriculum, you may also opt to take an out-of-department elective—even one from a different Boston University school. This means you can incorporate into your degree studies a course that complements the program in a unique way, like Project Management (MET AD 642), Curatorship (CAS AH 521), or Principles and Practices of Advertising (MET CM 708). Options like these, among many others, provide the chance to significantly diversify your educational experience.
No matter what electives you choose to incorporate into your Metropolitan College Master of Science in Arts Administration degree, you’ll be setting yourself on a path towards professional distinction within the field. If, however, you are looking for a more structured kind of specialization, BU MET’s graduate certificates in Arts Administration can be taken individually or as part of the master’s degree program, offering the opportunity to add a credential that distinguishes your area of expertise.
Improve Your Skills in Fundraising for the Arts
Ever since the days of the Medicis, revenue has been essential to the financial wellbeing of the arts. Today, nonprofits rely on capable fundraisers to organize giving efforts and sustain the enterprise. Whether taken as part of a master’s degree program or on its own, the Graduate Certificate in Fundraising Management empowers you to support arts organizations through proven revenue generation techniques.
Raising Funds and Grant Writing for Nonprofit Organizations (MET AR 550), Capital Campaigns (MET AR 711), Individual Fundraising (MET AR 723), and Financial Management for Nonprofits (MET AR 750) comprise the four-course curriculum, which familiarizes you with the challenges and professional practices of fundraising and financial management, as well as the design and management of fundraising strategies and capital campaigns.
Preparing to be an effective fundraiser demands you refine an important set of skills, including strategies behind professional development, networking, and self-marketing, which are crucial for both being an effective fundraiser and securing positions as one.
Julia Herlein (MET’20), who earned both her MS in Arts Administration and her Graduate Certificate in Fundraising Management at Boston University, found the latter program to be an invaluable component to her education. “The Fundraising Management graduate certificate provides a practical, hands-on approach to understanding the world of nonprofit finance and philanthropy,” she says. “The grant writing course makes you think both analytically and creatively as you advocate for your organization and its role in the community.”
Of course, fundraising today can be useful outside arts and culture, as well. The skills you’ll develop in the Fundraising Management certificate program, like identifying funding sources, crafting grant applications, and network development, can also qualify you to work in healthcare, education, faith-based, and human services sectors, where you’ll understand their structural and operational nuances, as well as distinctions.
“Attending the Fundraising Management program has enhanced both my life and my work in so many ways,” says Meghan Donahue (MET’19), another student who earned both the Arts Administration master’s and the Fundraising Management graduate certificate, and today works as the director of development for the Manchester Community Music School in Manchester, N.H. “The skills I acquired in the program have helped me to better support and promote causes and organizations that are important to me, while also increasing my professional opportunities and supporting my family.”
From promotion to patronage, fundraising management is a proven path to helping BU MET students find their way in their career.
Take Center Stage in Commercial Theater Development
Looking to start a professional career in theater? The Graduate Certificate in Commercial Theater Development offers fundamental lessons on every stage of developing and marketing a commercial performing arts property—from identifying a promising concept, structuring a production company, and cultivating investors, to developing the work and securing its long-term returns.
The BU Metropolitan College Commercial Theater Development graduate certificate program is a unique one thanks in large part to its strategic partnership with Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, an affiliate of the storied Nederlander family of companies that for more than 110 years has been synonymous with theatrical success. Given its international network of bookers, venues, general managers, booking agents, Tony Award-winning producers, and marketers, the program provides access to highly experienced Broadway practitioners who serve as your instructors. Under their expert tutelage, aspiring theatrical producers and commercial theater professionals gain a holistic understanding of what it takes to bring a production to life and make it a success.
“This program provided me with an excellent opportunity to get in touch with the Broadway industry and help me fully understand the commercial art world,” Yueqing Xing (MET’21) says. “If you want to immerse yourself in performing arts, this program can help you build the bridge through professional training and learning.”
The four-course Commercial Theater Development certificate program is offered both online and on-campus and can be completed in a variety of pathways—even as quickly as two months through a new summer institute format. There is also an advanced version that includes the extraordinary opportunity for students to be placed in a semester-long internship opportunity on Broadway. For some, the access this program affords makes it a major draw in their decision to pursue arts administration at BU MET.
“The Commercial Theater Development certificate was the most valuable part of the [BU MET] program,” says Evan Alexander LaChance (MET’23). “To take one project through four courses and fully flesh out every facet from the business model, leadership style, and artistic team to the development pathway, budget, production timeline, pricing, marketing strategies, subsidiary businesses, and alternative markets was the most incredible experience.”
LaChance was a working actor and dancer in New York City until the 2020 pandemic disrupted the business and challenged him to reconsider his career. He came to MET to find a new way to make a living in the industry—as a producer—and came away impressed at how practical and encompassing the lessons were.
“The exposure to every board, brick, and screw needed to ‘build a house’ gave me a comprehensive view of the business I wanted to work in. That experience was invaluable. In one course, we had to develop our branding and marketing strategy,” he explains. “That served a dual purpose: it exposed us to a specialty we may choose to go into and allowed us to be better prepared even if we don’t. I feel I am a better producer for being able to engage with professionals who know something about their field versus deferring to their expertise.”
Today, LaChance is the general manager of Broadway Education Alliance Inc., and one of many success stories of certificate alums putting their specialized education in the theater business to work.
Hone Your Creative Pitch through Arts Marketing
There are myriad ways to take on leadership roles in the arts—including through marketing.
If you’re seeking to develop your talents in the promotion, advertising, and marketing of the arts, the Graduate Certificate in Arts Marketing provides a robust course of study that can prepare you to work for an arts-driven organization as a marketing manager.
The unique benefit posed by the Boston University’s Arts Marketing graduate certificate is that it blends courses from the traditional Arts Administration program with offerings from BU MET’s accomplished Advertising and Global Marketing program tracks. This means you’ll get training in marketing techniques, marketing segmentation, social media marketing, data analytics, and strategic decision-making from the same instructors that teach in BU MET’s acclaimed Department of Administrative Sciences. Like all of Metropolitan College’s Arts Administration graduate certificates, it can be completed in just 8 to 12 months, quickly setting you on course for a rewarding career marketing the humanities.
As part of your required studies, you’ll take Marketing and Audience Development for the Arts (MET AR 720), wherein you’ll lay your arts marketing foundation by learning the theory and principles used by nonprofit performing and visual arts organizations to develop audiences, eventually designing your own marketing plan for an arts organization. Then, it’s Advanced Arts Marketing Analytics (MET AR 721), which offers detailed knowledge of approaches to employing data analytics techniques for marketing and expanding audiences, including the use of customer surveys and demographics, working with CRMS and databases, building a data-driven organizational mindset, email marketing, social media analytics, attribution models, new-to-file audiences, customer retention, and data visualization.
You’re then free to round out your Arts Marketing certificate studies with intradepartmental courses, such as Writing for Media Professionals (MET CM 707), where you’ll brush up on the writing techniques required to pen press releases, profiles, scripts, features, and editorials; Innovative Marketing Techniques (MET AD 737), which prepares you to adapt to the evolving marketing demands of the online world by developing tools in strategy, SEO marketing, email marketing, and social media; or Strategic Brand Solutions (MET CM 726), which explores the challenges modern marketing and advertising efforts face, particularly through the prism of ethics, legal considerations, social impact, and political bent—among a host of other elective options.
Good art and productions rely on proficient marketing efforts, and with the Arts Marketing certificate at BU’s Metropolitan College, you can refine the talents it takes to play a vital role in helping arts organizations succeed.
Gain Access to the Industry through the Arts Management Certificate
The final path which offers you the chance to focus your arts administration studies is the Graduate Certificate in Arts Management. With a curriculum that hews closely to the MS in Arts Administration through courses like The Art World (MET AR 690) and Financial Management for Nonprofits (MET AR 750), this certificate introduces you to working arts managers and gets you started on a career in the field.
You’ll get the chance to develop relevant professional experience through project management activities, while also getting opportunities to collaborate with world-leading art institutions and practitioners in the field.
“BU’s Arts Management certificate program was the perfect way for me to integrate quickly into the non-profit arts community in Boston, while still keeping a global context due to the international focus of courses and the program’s diverse student population,” says Juliana Jordan, who now works as a director of transformative programming for the New England Conservatory of Music after earning her certificate in 2019. “I found inspiration and excellent networking opportunities in every classroom because of the range of experience, variety of arts backgrounds, and creative perspectives of my colleagues as much as from the content of the class and guidance of engaging professors,” she adds.
“The Graduate Certificate in Arts Management at Boston University Metropolitan College is second to none,” agrees Jacob Gross. “The courses and faculty prepare you with knowledge and experience directly from the field, with professors often coming to class straight from their position in the arts in Boston.”
Sign up for our two-week Summer Arts Management Institute
For Rim Meliani (MET’20), who completed both her Arts Management certificate and her Arts Administration master’s, the key factor was exposure. “I gained an in-depth knowledge of cultural institutions in the non-profit and private sectors of the United States,” she says. “The curriculum allowed me to learn valuable skills in grant writing, consulting for arts institutions and fundraising through real-life experience working for Boston arts institutions.”
These kinds of applied lessons will make all the difference as you launch your arts administration career.
There are numerous ways that you can customize your MS in Arts Administration education at BU’s Metropolitan College to suit your particular goals. No matter what course of study you choose, you will be getting a world-class education rooted in creativity, economic problem solving, entrepreneurial leadership, internationalism, innovation in the arts, and a commitment to technological proficiency—all through a Boston University program that holds a deep conviction in the centrality of the role of the artist, and in the fundamental importance of artistic excellence.
View Metropolitan College’s Arts Administration programs.