Arts Policy and Management (Postgraduate Certificate)

Arts management plays a vital role in designing, shaping and supporting the arts, helping to ensure that access, freedom and equality are achieved across all aspects of the cultural sector. Our flexible Postgraduate Certificate in Arts Policy and Management is ideal if you are an arts manager already, and wish to develop your practice and deepen your understanding of the background, theories and principles of arts and cultural management. Alternatively, if you are contemplating a career in arts policy and management and aim to understand current trends and debates that inform the day-to-day running of arts organisations, it provides a comprehensive overview of the sector.

Making the most of our central London location, you 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.

You 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 one module, that combines knowledge and experience related to art subfields (eg performing, visual arts) or specific groups and stakeholders (eg artists, audiences, pro-sumer or cultural organisations) via a chosen contextual approach such as power, identity, memory, digitalisation or learning.

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY

Graduates can pursue careers in the creative arts, education and museums/galleries. Possible professions include higher education lecturer, museum/gallery curator, or arts administrator. This degree may also be useful in becoming a community arts worker or multimedia specialist.

We offer a comprehensive Careers Service to help you advance your career, while our in-house, professional recruitment consultancy, Birkbeck Talent, works with London’s top employers to help you gain work experience that fits in with your evening studies.

You should have a second-class honours degree (2:2) or above in an arts subject, or in any subject together with experience of administration/management in an arts/cultural organisation, or three years’ relevant experience, for example in a senior management role in an arts/cultural organisation.