Purchase College Launches New "Entrepreneurship In The Arts" Master's Program

PURCHASE, N.Y., Sept. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Purchase College-SUNY today announced it will launch an MA in Entrepreneurship in the Arts—the first degree in the country that focuses exclusively on creating new entities in the arts sector. The program, which will commence fall 2015, will provide graduates with the skills to create arts ventures and act as entrepreneurs—along with an in-depth foundation in management and leadership skills.

"This visionary degree program will enable graduates to identify, imagine and build enterprises that will create and sustain the arts marketplace of tomorrow," says Thomas J. Schwarz, president of Purchase College-SUNY.  "It will address a critical need for creative leadership in both the commercial and not-for-profit arts and culture sectors."

Ravi Rajan, dean of the Purchase College School of the Arts explains, "The program is designed to empower the emerging generation to be leaders who will redefine the arts through innovation.  It will foster a 'meta synergy' by equipping graduates with a unique blend of idea generation, marketing, policy, management, and financial skills to apply to the creation of new entities for the arts."

James Undercofler, professor and chair of the Purchase College Department of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship, spearheaded the design of the new program, following many years of his leading both schools and professional arts organizations. "With its visionary leadership and world-class arts programs embedded together with a College focused on liberal education, Purchase College is the ideal institution to offer this degree," he says. "We anticipate that this new program will be a galvanizing force campus-wide, as well as helping to redefine the arts world."

Courses in the one-and-a-half-year degree program will feature a core of 3 courses in arts entrepreneurship, plus those in leadership and management techniques, fund development and financing for the arts, digital marketing, and law and the arts. Students will be guided into deep thinking about the arts and culture worlds, then create entirely new ideas, which will then be developed into  their own new enterprises.

Examples of these new ventures could include: organizations that deliver services, companies that build devices, and even organizations that re-imagine the arts disciplines and how they interact with society.

The new degree program has recently received final approval from the New York State Education Department.

About Purchase College-SUNY
Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College-SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu 

SOURCE Purchase College-SUNY