Cultural entrepreneurs combine their passion for creative and cultural products and programs with creative, out-of-the-box thinking to forge the resilience of the arts sectors and the wider communities they serve. Cultural entrepreneurs employ innovative approaches to audience engagement – like a roving theater company, pop-up museum, or a smartphone app for artistic collaboration – to deliver artistic value to wide and diverse audiences and make a positive social, environmental, and economic impact. Today's cultural entrepreneurs operate in diverse professional environments, from consulting for organizational transformation to launching a creative startup. By understanding community impacts and activating a range of cultural and creative experiences, cultural entrepreneurs play a crucial role in ensuring the vitality of artistic engagement, advancing community goals, and strengthening society.
The Graduate Certificate in Cultural Entrepreneurship empowers students with a critical, creative perspective on arts programming and management and a myriad of creative management tools that harness new technologies for artistic engagement.
The Graduate Certificate in Cultural Entrepreneurship offers an interdisciplinary program to create diverse and viable projects and organizations for artistic experience and positive social impact. The program prepares students to become innovators in a range of artistic and cultural disciplines, from music, visual art, theater, and dance to community-building and transformation. The curriculum offers students the opportunity to identify opportunities for evolution in the arts and cultural sectors and to develop critical, creative practices; leadership acumen; and skill sets in arts management, strategic planning, and performance analysis to conceive and implement creative, cultural programming for community engagement and positive impact.
The program learning objectives provide students with opportunities to:
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Develop an understanding of methods and tools used to conceptualize, scope, pilot, evaluate, iterate and launch cultural entrepreneurship projects;
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Align creative practice and arts enterprise strategies with opportunities, challenges and resources to achieve desired impact;
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Apply communication, engagement and evaluation techniques to develop and sustain diverse audiences and stakeholder relationships;
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Engage in critical analysis of the work of peers and industry leaders by analyzing and contextualizing the quality, viability and sustainability of culturally-driven entrepreneurship.
The required curriculum includes three core courses and one directed elective for a total of 12 semester hours. All courses can be completed online.
- Concentrations and course offerings may vary by campus and/or by program modality. Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for the course availability each term at your campus or within your program modality.
- Certain options within the program may be required at certain campuses or for certain program modalities. Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for requirements at your campus or for your program modality.
Complete all courses and requirements listed below unless otherwise indicated.
Core Requirements
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| AACE 6200 | Programming and Community Engagement for Cultural Entrepreneurs | 3 |
| AACE 6210 | Building Value Through Cultural Enterprise | 3 |
| AACE 6220 | Innovative Approaches to Audience Engagement | 3 |
Elective
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| 3 |
| Arts and Culture Organizational Leadership | |
| Planning for Arts and Cultural Organizations | |
| Information Technology for Arts and Cultural Organizations | |
| Business Planning for New Ventures | |
Program Credit/GPA Requirements
12 total semester hours required
Minimum 3.000 GPA required
