Master of Arts in Arts Management

Become an Arts Business Leader

As a passionate and purpose-driven arts manager, you help artists find their voice, audiences find their bliss, organizations attract and animate their funding, and communities build thriving and creative places to live, learn, and work. AU’s Arts Management Program will prepare you to make a positive difference in the visual, performing, media, community, online, or emerging arts, and position you to change the art world for the better.

Learn and work in the global cultural hub of Washington, DC, alongside business-savvy arts leaders, a vibrant and diverse network of global professionals, and world-respected and innovative faculty. Explore the powerful intersection of research and professional practice through a curriculum that blends them both with hands-on work experiences and real-world insights of alumni and other leading professionals.

Arts Leaders Dedicated To Your Success

Our faculty bring deep expertise and demonstrated commitment to student and alumni success. As one example, all three of our full-time faculty have been elected by an international membership of arts management faculty to serve as President of the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE). Our entire world-class faculty is internationally respected for its thought leadership and agenda-setting role in arts and culture. They conduct important research, publish widely, present internationally, and bring practical experience with prestigious arts venues to their instruction.

We have a program-wide commitment to providing individual student support, academic advising, and career coaching. You will receive individual mentorship from our expert professors throughout the program.

A City Devoted To The Arts

Home to national and international institutions and a thriving local visual, performing, media, and community arts scene, DC is an exceptional place to study arts management. In this city, you will have access to global performers and thinkers, artists from every country in the world, leading practitioners and policymakers, and area institutions ranging from grass-roots art groups to world-renowned venues.

In DC, the local is global. Our program collaborates with Sotheby’s of London, the Department of State, and major foundations from around the world. We also have a powerful local network, connecting our students to internships, partnerships, fellowships, and practicum placements among the DC area’s leading cultural institutions, including Americans for the Arts, Arena Stage, Ford’s Theater, the Smithsonian Institution, the Helen Hayes Awards, the Kennedy Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Gallery of Art, the National Symphony Orchestra, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Washington Ballet, and the Washington National Opera.

A Powerful and Proven Curriculum

Our 34-credit Master of Arts program has been crafted and refined over four decades to provide a solid foundation in arts-management essentials along with the flexibility to fit your career goals.

You will take 21 credits of strategy-level core requirements in arts management, marketing, fundraising, financial management, governance and leadership, cultural policy, and legal issues. Six elective credits allow you to focus your studies on a particular discipline, role, or topic area – within arts management or across any relevant graduate courses at American University or the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Finally, seven capstone credits result in a significant research or portfolio project that integrates and demonstrates your specialized expertise to peers and prospective employers.

With the study abroad option, you will study for three semesters in DC and one semester with Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, focusing your studies either on the business of visual art or on art museums, galleries, and curating.

Full-time students complete the MA program in two years, with the final semester designed to work either in-person or remotely. Part-time study is also available, and all Arts Management classes meet in the evenings, making this program a perfect fit for career switchers and working professionals.

Your Opportunity to Make Art Thrive

With an AU education, a city full of opportunities, a powerful professional network, and the practical experience gained during your practicum, you will graduate fully prepared for a position in mid-to upper-level management. We combine career coaching and academic advising throughout the program to support your career goals and ensure your success.

Our graduates go on to executive leadership positions in arts and cultural organizations across the country and around the world. Current or recent placements include Spoleto Festival, Wolf Trap, British Embassy, Hubbard Street Dance, Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Los Angeles Opera, National Endowment for the Arts, Korean Ministry of Culture, Pittsburgh Symphony, Whitney Museum, Smithsonian, Blackbaud, Library of Virginia Foundation, Toronto Symphony, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Barnes Foundation, Broadway Cares, Netflix, Manhattan School of Music, Chorus America, Lincoln Center, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, SoundExchange, 92nd Street Y, US Copyright Office, National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Alliance of Museums, Hirshhorn Museum, Round House Theater, and others.