MA Arts Management, Policy and Practice

Working as an arts manager requires the skills and knowledge to build, manage and sustain multiple and often complex relationships with a range of stakeholders. Combining cultural, historical, political and sociological perspectives, this unit will critically explore the different approaches arts managers use when working with/alongside/on/for a range of stakeholders (artists, communities, audiences, funders and policymakers). Students will develop their knowledge of the contemporary debates that inform arts managers’ approaches to working with stakeholders, including exploring questions of cultural value, working conditions of artists and the challenges of impact and evaluation. Alongside expanding their theoretical knowledge, students will have the opportunity to develop their practical skills by exploring how to create audience development plans, evaluation frameworks and partnership agreements. Lectures, seminars and workshops will bring students into contact with a range of artists, arts managers and organisations responsible for developing and delivering a broad array of arts and cultural activities.  

The unit aims to:

• Develop knowledge and critical understanding of the different issues and considerations that arts managers must account for when working with key stakeholders in developing and delivering arts and cultural activities.
• Develop practical skills in devising evaluation frameworks and audience strategy development plans to support stakeholders' engagement and participation in arts and cultural activities
• Stimulate critical debate, innovation and entrepreneurialism in areas relating specifically to audiences, participation and engagement and its relationship to arts management practices 

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content): 

Week One: Introduction: defining Audiences, Engagement and Participation, Identifying the stakeholders, key word outline and group project set-up.

Week Two: Working with Creatives: HR and Ethical working practices, Working conditions, Creative autonomy and building a collaborative process

Week Three: Working alongside Communities: Partnership development, bottoms-up approach and the role of community arts.  

Week Four: Working on Audiences: Identifying  audiences, marketing strategies and audience engagement plans, outputs, outcomes and impacts.  

Week Five: Working for Funders and Policymakers: Impact and Evaluation frameworks, Cultural Value and ‘chameleonic practices’

Week Six: Working Globally: International Perspectives on Audiences, Engagement and Participation  

Week Seven: Introduction to group project

Week Eight: Group Project Work

Week Nine: Group Project Work

Week Ten: Group Project Work

Week Eleven: Group Project Work

Week Twelve: Group Project Work

Weekly Lectures, seminars and workshops. There will also be directed reading and pre-set tasks to develop students' assessed work from week to week. Students will benefit from input from a range of artists and arts managers who have been invited as guest speakers, and local organisations who are treated as case studies. Indicative reading is provided through the handbook with links to further resources which will also be provided via Blackboard. 
 

Use a range of critical literature and approaches to explore issues pertaining to audiences, engagement, participation and arts management.  

Demonstrate knowledge of different approaches and practices used by arts managers when working with a range of stakeholders  

Demonstrate awareness of current issues and debates pertaining to audiences, participation, engagement and working with different stakeholders.  
 

Undertake self-directed learning and skills acquisition in areas pertaining to arts management and stakeholder engagement.  

Demonstrate critical awareness and understanding of the key issues pertaining to working with a range of stakeholders in the development and delivery of arts and cultural activity.  

Research, design and develop appropriate strategies and frameworks for working with artists, communities, audiences and funders.  

Demonstrate skills in writing evaluation frameworks, audience and strategy development

Communicate complex research findings through clear written and verbal articulation, supported by appropriate technological tools in a professional, as well as an academic environment  

Orchestrate group work in disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contexts and work constructively within a team. 

Plan and deliver effective presentations of written, visual and verbal communication.

Retrieve, select and critically evaluate information from a variety of on- and off-line sources.

Demonstrate independent learning ability suitable for continuing study and professional development  
 

Formative and Summative tasks - Written feedback

Anisimovich, A et al. (2022). Back to live: Returning to in-person engagement with arts and culture in the Liverpool City Region.  

Au Tung, W & Zuo, Z & Yam, P C (2022). Quantitative Measures of Audience Experience. Chapter in Reason, M, Conner, L, Johanson, K & Walmsley, B (eds) Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts.  

Belfiore, E. (2022). Who cares? At what price? The hidden costs of socially engaged arts labour and the moral failure of cultural policy. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(1), 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420982863

Berg, I T (2023). Participation and Creative Autonomy:The Changing Role of Artists. Teatervitenskapelige Studier, nr. 7 (oktober).

Brown, A & Ratzkin, R (2011). Making sense of audience engagement:  A critical assessment of efforts by nonprofit arts organisations to engage audiences and visitors in deeper and more impactful arts experiences.

Courty, P & Zhang, F (2018). Cultural Participation in major Chinese cities.  

Goldbard, A (2006). New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development

Hadley, S (2021). Audience Development and Cultural Policy.  

Hadley, S (2022). ‘ARE WE THE BADDIES?’ Audience development, cultural policy and ideological precarity. Chapter in Reason, M, Conner, L, Johanson, K & Walmsley, B (eds) Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts.  

Jeffers, A & Moriarty, G (2019). Cultural Democracy and the Right to Make Art: The British Community Arts Movement.  

Johanson, K & Glow, H (2015). A virtuous circle: The positive evaluation phenomenon in arts audience research. Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 12 (1)p.254-270.  

Miles, A. and Gibson, L., 2016, 'Everyday Participation and Cultural Value: Part 1', Cultural 
Trends 25 (3)  

Newman, B (2018) ‘Inventing the Future of the Arts: Seven Digital Trends that Present Challenges and opportunities for success in the cultural sector’. Chapter in Roswell, E & Shane, R (eds) Arts and Cultural Management: Critical and Primary Sources.  

Novak-Lenoard, J & Skaggs, R (2017). Public Perception of Artists in Communities: A sign of changing times

Scollen, R (2007). Regional Voices talk theatre: audience development for the performing arts.

Walmsley B (2019).  Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts: A Critical Analysis (New Directions in Cultural Policy Research).