Arts Administration Programs

The arts are a critical element in a healthy society, and the role of arts managers is to nurture environments in which artistic excellence can thrive—particularly in a changing world. The programs in arts administration, fundraising management, and performing arts enterprise at Boston University’s Metropolitan College (MET) emphasize creative problem solving, leadership, globalism, and effective use of current technologies to prepare students to play leadership roles in the global arts of the twenty-first century. The socioeconomic and political challenges of the day bring renewed importance to the work of cultural entrepreneurs, artists, producers, curators, policy-makers, and arts managers. Effective arts administrators embrace the challenge of re-thinking and re-shaping the role that the arts play in contemporary society. BU MET’s master’s degree and graduate certificates teach students the history of philanthropy and the structure of the nonprofit sector in the United States, as well as a wide variety of development techniques including direct mail, telemarketing, special events management, annual appeals, bequests, capital campaigns management, major gifts, grant writing and management, and fundraising ethics.