Graduate Standards in Arts Administration Education

The Graduate Standards in Arts Administration Education represent the most recent and best thinking on the key curricular themes and content of 17 subject areas in arts administration, arts management, and cultural management. Crafted by nearly 100 scholars and practitioners, and starting from an inclusive lens, they include Arts Education, Arts Entrepreneurship, Managing and Leading Arts in Health Programs, Community Engagement, Creative Placemaking, Cultural Policy for Arts Managers, Enterprise Technology, Experiential Learning, Financial Management, Fundraising, Institutional Leadership, International Environment for the Arts, Legal and Ethical Environment for the Arts, Marketing and Audience Development, Production and Distribution of Art, Research Methods, and Strategy. Each of the Graduate Standards is divided into three levels, expressed in terms of desired student outcomes.

Individuals, programs, colleges, and universities use these standards to advance an array of goals:
– Conduct self-assessment for established programs of their courses, curriculum, and programs.
– Design and development of new courses, curricula, or programs at the graduate level.
– Provide information and background for constituents from other domains or disciplines who may be involved in accreditation, internal or external review, philanthropy, policy, community engagement, or a range of other pursuits.
– Establish context and calibration for faculty selection, development, renewal, promotion, or tenure processes.

Arts administration programs are typically atypical in that they inhabit different colleges, schools, and departments, and vary greatly in their approaches, processes, and goals. The standards are designed to provide a menu of subject areas and mastery levels that each program can select and apply to their context, competencies, and definitions of student success. This flexibility allows for a) the identification of the combination of knowledge areas within a program most suited to what its faculty and capabilities can provide, and b) the assessment of distinct student proficiency targets within each knowledge area. In this way, programs can find and refine their competitive niche, identify possible areas for growth, and have a basis for academic/practitioner partnerships.