Welcome to the Arts Administration Program at Teachers College, Columbia University’s blog!
For almost four decades, the Arts Administration program at Teachers College, Columbia University has educated the next generation of arts leaders. Our graduates work in diverse arts organizations around the globe, including opera and dance companies, auction houses, advocacy organizations, government ministries, community arts organizations, galleries and museums. They work in fundraising and development, marketing, education, programming, and in executive and operations roles.
ARAD’s blog creates a community among current students, prospective students, alumni, faculty and the field, while also serving as a public face for the program and our students.
Here’s what you can find on our blog:
- Our Student Spotlights Series highlights current students, celebrates their achievements, and shares their insights into the program
- Our students and faculty share their reflections on events, exhibitions, performances, and trends in the field
- We keep up with our alumni to learn about how they are contributing to the field now in our Alumni Spotlight Series
- ‘Faculty News’ highlights what our faculty are contributing to in the field
To find out more about the program, click here!
The program in Arts Administration focuses on the missions and activities of art and cultural agencies and institutions, and promotes the educational role of the arts and artists.
The program reflects the conviction that the management of cultural institutions and enterprises is a profession that requires both creativity and commitment and that, at its best, the profession has a positive impact on the quality of artistic life. Arts Administration is organized in conjunction with the programs in Arts and Humanities, further reflecting the importance of educational diversity, mission, and activities of the arts in both profit and nonprofit sectors.
In order to respond to the challenges and responsibilities facing the arts in the twenty-first century, the arts manager must have an amalgam of managerial and financial skills, an investment in ethical and policy issues, a broad knowledge about artistic disciplines, an awareness of community dynamics, a commitment to education in its broadest sense, and a sensitivity to the artist and the artistic process. The essence of the program lies in its effort to provide a carefully constructed core curriculum while making available the extraordinary range of intellectual and cultural resources throughout Teachers College, Columbia University, and within New York City.
The objectives of the program are:
- train new leaders to manage and administer arts and cultural venues;
- raise the standards of arts administration to a new level of social responsibility;
- strengthen advocacy roles for artists;
- broaden the horizons of arts administrators, facilitating their interactions with the arts community;
- give arts advocates new management and administrative tools; and,
- provide theoretical and practical preparation for students whose professional objective is a career in arts administration, arts education, or a combination of the two.
The M.A. degree consists of 60 points of coursework:
30 points taken from the core program offerings; 6 points of coursework is taken through the Columbia Business School; 6-9 points of coursework is taken outside of the Arts Administration Program to fulfill the breadth requirement through Teachers College courses; and 12-18 points of courses are taken as electives at Teachers College or Columbia. Students are also required to take an internship and complete a formal master’s essay.
The core curriculum represents a unique alliance among the faculties of Teachers College, Columbia’s Graduate School of Business, and the School of Law. Included in the core requirements are principles of arts administration, policy, fundraising, theories regarding the historical foundations and socio-cultural context of the arts, accounting, financial planning, marketing, business, policy, labor relations, and copyright law. Please note: tuition rates may vary for non-TC courses, depending on the offering school. Each student is evaluated in the first year to ensure that satisfactory progress is maintained.
Arts Administration 