MBA Combined With Arts Experience Provides Creative Business Options

You have a liberal or fine arts degree, but a professional career in business is your true ambition. Combining your arts background with an MBA can lead to management positions in arts, entertainment, design, and communications firms.

by Karen Lawson
karenlawson@mba-business-schools.com
MBA-Business-Schools Columnist

It’s no secret that success in the arts can be an uphill battle. Clich??s about starving actors, artists, and writers tell the story. If you have an arts background and want a successful creative career, an MBA can enhance your creative experience with the necessary business and leadership skills.

You love to paint, act, or write, but you also need to make mortgage payments and care for yourself and your family. If you’re tired of low-paying and sporadic jobs in the arts, an MBA program can help you find lucrative employment within a broad range of creative organizations, educational institutions, and arts agencies. As a manager or executive in a creative company, your understanding of artists and creative processes can be useful in dealing with creative artists, designers, and writers.

If you are already working, don’t worry. You won’t have to miss a lot of work to accommodate a rigid academic schedule. MBA business programs are widely available online, and you may be able to choose a specialization that suits your professional goals.

What can you expect to learn in an MBA program? You can expect to study principles and theories of business, human relations, organizational management and psychology, and topics in accounting and finance. Before selecting your MBA program, it may be helpful to study job descriptions for management positions in the arts.

Today’s rapid advances in media, communications, and entertainment provide a variety of creative business opportunities. An MBA degree combined with your arts education and experience can provide the knowledge you need to succeed in the business aspects of arts and entertainment management.

Karen Lawson is a freelance writer whose interests include topics in education and popular culture. She holds an MA degree in English from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Posted on January 05, 2007 at 01:37 PM

Share this article: