The business side of arts

Since she was a child, junior Samantha Weiss has wanted to work in a museum. Now, after enrolling in IU’s new undergraduate Arts Administration Program, Weiss was granted the chance to intern next summer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.\n“I always had an interest in museums, but wasn’t aware of how to study it in college,” she said.\nThe IU Arts Administration Program has been around since 1971 but only became available to undergraduate students this semester. \nThe program provides undergraduate students with the background and skills necessary to function in the management aspects of the arts industry, according to the program’s Web site. The program is designed to prepare students for careers in areas such as development relations, marketing, artistic direction and programming, arts education and financial management.\nSusan Sandberg, coordinator for the Arts Administration Program, said the undergraduate program finally provides an outlet for students who had to individualize a major that didn’t exist prior to the program.\n“Many students started in the Individualized Major Program, (and) now we’re able to bridge that gap,” Sandberg said.\nThe undergraduate program lured six students into it without any advertising, something that Sandberg said she’s very proud of.\n“We couldn’t do any advertising or promoting of the degree until the major was approved by the higher education commission,” she said.\nSandberg explained that because their standards are high for the program, only six students could be accepted, though more applied. She’s hoping students who were not accepted will take an interest in the 21-credit certificate program that the program offers. There are currently 20 students enrolled in the certificate program.\nThe certificate program gives the student a concentration that they might use as a minor, Sandberg said. She suggested the concentration would be appropriate for music, dance and theater majors who want to be performers, but may also want to manage their careers.\nIU alumna Meg Liffick, the senior marketing director at the museum, helped Weiss receive the internship at the Indianapolis Art Museum. Sandberg said she is happy that the graduate students from the program offer good networking for the undergraduates.\n“Our graduates are all over the place, and that’s a tremendous asset for students in the program when they’re looking for competitive internships and looking for opportunities in the arts,” Sandberg said. “We have people that we can introduce them to.”\nWith the new undergraduate program, Sandberg said the program itself has almost doubled because of the new staff hired to support the program.\nProfessor Christopher Hunt said even though he’s only been working with the Arts Administration Program since the middle of spring semester 2007, he’s been very impressed.\n“I think it works well as a preparation given that the business of actually working is different than the theory of studying,” he said.\nHunt, who spent 30 years running festivals around the world, including the Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia, said the temptation of being a teacher and passing on his personal experience is what brought him to IU.\n“I thought I had retired,” he said laughing.\nThe IU Arts Administration Program started in the Kelley School of Business before moving to the Jacobs School of Music. Sandberg and Charles Bonser, who is director of the Arts Administration Program, helped bring the program to the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.\n“We’re very happily married to the SPEA family because of it’s non-profit management expertise,” Sandberg said.\nWeiss said she wishes the undergraduate program had been available sooner.\n“It’s unfortunate they didn’t open up the undergraduate program until this year, or I would’ve majored in it,” Weiss said.\nHowever, Sandberg is hopeful for the future of the program.\n“We’re growing and we’re looking for good students,” she said. “We’re looking for students that are going to go on and be very serious about the arts and building an arts career.”