Arts Leadership Minor

Program Director: Maura Keefe, Ph.D.

The minor in Arts Leadership provides students with the opportunity to acquire the practical and strategic skills to become leaders in the arts, whether it be as artists, as entrepreneurs in the business of the arts, or as cultural leaders in government and non-governmental agencies involved in the arts. The primary emphasis will be on arts leadership in not-for-profit environments. Although primarily intended for students majoring in the Arts and Humanities, the minor in Arts Leadership is designed to meet the needs of any student at the University of Maryland with an interest in arts entrepreneurship, arts administration, and arts activism.

Students minoring in Arts Leadership will learn:

  • critical, interdisciplinary, and holistic thinking methods necessary to meet the challenges faced by artists, educators, entrepreneurs, institutions, and organizations in national and international artistic settings.

  • the fundamentals of cultural policy, stewardship, heritage, programming, and curation, as well of the legal aspects of arts leadership, including copyright.

  • practical skills such as grant writing, marketing, and fundraising.

  • an appreciation for the importance of diversity in the arts as well as an understanding of the service role that the performing and visual arts perform in the ecology of small communities to transnational institutions.

Course Title Credits
ARHU240Cultural Institutions of the United States3
ENGL398AWriting for the Arts3
or ENGL398N Writing for Non-Profit Organizations
ARHU440Arts Leadership Seminar3
Choose 2 from the following courses (6 credits):6
Financial Entrepreneurship for Arts Leaders
Foundations of Marketing for Non Business Majors
Experiential Learning (ARHU386A or approved equivalent Professional Internship)
Total Credits15