WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A DEGREE IN ARTS MANAGEMENT?

The College of Charleston’s liberal arts curriculum guarantees that you’ll be able to relate well to all kinds of people, an attribute vital to success in advocacy, marketing and fundraising for the arts. Many of our graduates immediately seek employment in the arts management field. Examples of positions held by graduates include:

• Senior special events manager, Special Olympics, Atlanta, Ga.
• Interim managing director, Denver Young Artist Orchestra
• Development assistant and internship coordinator, City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs
• Director of communications, Georgia Regional Hospital, Savannah
• Administrative assistant, Asheville Area Arts Council, N.C.
• Assistant box office manager, Spoleto Festival USA
• Coordinator, Gallery at Waterfront Park (operated by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs)
• Program assistant in dance administration, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
• Development manager for CityDance, Washington, D.C.
• Visitor services coordinator, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston
• Development manager, Spoleto Festival USA
• Program assistant, dean’s office, College of Charleston School of the Arts
• Customer support, Blackbaud, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
• Director of ticketing services, Charleston Stage Company
• Event director, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,Washington, D.C.
• Program assistant at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, America’s national park for the performing arts, Vienna, Va.
• Director, Richard James Galleries, Charleston
• Communications manager, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md.
• Arts education director, Virginia Arts Commission, Richmond, Va.

Other recent graduates have chosen to continue their studies, choosing programs such as:

• Temple University, media and film production
• The Citadel, MBA
• Winthrop University, MBA
• Ohio State University, cultural policy and arts administration

Active Learning Opportunities

Internships provide you with valuable exposure to the working world. You can “learn by doing,” applying your classroom knowledge and skills in an actual work environment. An internship also gives you the chance to build your professional résumé, and to network. Some local internships include:

• Spoleto Festival USA
• Piccolo Spoleto Festival
• Office of Cultural Affairs
• Charleston Antiques Symposium
• Gibbes Museum of Art
• Creative Spark Center for the Arts
• Footlight Players
• Charleston Concert Association
• Charleston Magazine
• Sculpture in the South
• South Carolina Aquarium
• Charleston Ballet Theatre
• Charleston Symphony Orchestra

Our students also compete successfully for internships across the country. National and international internships have included:

• Washington (D.C.) Performing Arts Society
• Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs
• Royal & Derngate Theatres, England
• Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
• The Drama League, New York City
• MTV, New York City
• K-Records, Seattle, Wa.

The program regularly sponsors guest speakers, such as Harriet Keyserling, a former South Carolina legislator who “wrote the book” on developing arts legislation in S.C., and Ken May, deputy director of the S.C. Arts Commission.

The arts management program also recently hosted the national Arts Education Partnership meeting, which brought 200 national leaders of organizations interested in arts education to Charleston to discuss the role of the arts in education. Our students assisted with the planning, execution, and logistics of this important event, and also had the chance to attend various sessions, where they heard visiting national leaders speak on the value of the arts for all children.

• Jane Alexander, award-winning actress and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts
• Richard W. Riley, former U.S. Secretary of Education
• Dick Deasy, executive director of the national Arts Education Partnership

Other Special Opportunities

City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs Fellowships. Two arts management fellowships are available each year to outstanding arts management students from the College of Charleston. The fellowship– lasting from September through May – includes a stipend of $4,000 for working in the Office of Cultural Affairs where you plan and coordinate Piccolo Spoleto Festival events that are of special interest to young people.

The Charleston Jazz Initiative(CJI). This project documents the African American jazz tradition in Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry, and its diasporic movement throughout the United States and Europe from the late 19th century through today. CJI operates out of the arts management program and in partnership with the College’s Avery Research Center. Recent activities include “Return to the Source,” a weekend of public presentations and conversations with live jazz, held during Spoleto Festival USA.

Active learningis enhanced by the College’s artist-in-residence programs, art history lecture series, recitals, concerts, theatre and dance productions, and gallery exhibitions.

College of Charleston Advantages

• The College of Charleston is one of the few schools in the Southeast – and the only school in South Carolina – to offer undergraduate study with a major and a minor in arts management and administration.
• Charleston is a center of the arts and home to Spoleto Festival USA, a major national arts event; the MOJA Festival, featuring African- American and Caribbean art; and Piccolo Spoleto, a celebration of regional arts.
• Other learning resources include the Gibbes Museum of Art, Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Charleston Symphony and Charleston Ballet, among many others.

“I chose the College of Charleston because of its strong arts management program and the great artistic opportunities available in the city. All of the professors have worked in the field and bring these experiences to the classroom. Having the opportunity to complete a semester internship with the Washington (D.C.) Performing Arts Society was a life-changing experience that gave me the confidence to succeed in the real world. This internship and others helped me to qualify for the City of Charleston Arts Management Fellowship position and has been the perfect transition between interning and working professionally in the field.”

Brittany Warren ’06