Master of Arts [M.A] [Arts Policy and Management] From Birkbeck, University of London

The Masters degree in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck, University of London gives students a chance to explore the requirements and benefits of strategic management, power relations and policy and to practise evaluations within art production. The programme balances theory and practice within the context of the prevailing social, political, economic and technological environments. College invite students to develop and expand your key critical thinking skills in smaller discursive seminar groups focusing on public and voluntary sector arts organisations, but also address key commercial sector issues.

Making the most of our central London location, students can take advantage of one of the largest concentrations of art spaces, cultural organisations and festivals, with the British Museum, Wellcome Gallery, Bloomsbury Festival and West End theatres, and a wealth of other museums and galleries within walking distance. For those who want to deepen their sector experience, we offer a placement module that encourages students to work on their own research interests within an arts organisation. Past students have had valuable experiences in organisations ranging from the Greater London Authority to the Hackney Museum, and from the Big Dance Project to the Wallace Collection.

Students start with a core module that introduces overarching topics such as cultural identity, creative labour and management structures, cultural diversity and leadership, cultural evaluation and big data applications in arts management. You then specialise through your own tailored pathway, selecting two modules, that combine knowledge and experience related to art subfields (eg performing, visual arts) or specific groups and stakeholders for example artists, audiences, pro-sumer or cultural organisations via a chosen contextual approach such as power, identity, memory, digitalisation or learning. With a further option module choice students can complement their degree with, for example, legal knowledge, marketing and comparative cultural policies to fit their interests. Students finish their degree with a piece of individual research (dissertation) of their choice in consultation with a supervisor.