Creative and Cultural Industries Management MA
1 Year Full-Time | September Start

This module is an optional module for students on the MA Creative and Cultural Industries Management who are thinking of starting up a creative industry business after graduation The focus of this module is to support you in developing your business idea into a real-life venture. To do this we will introduce you to venture creation topics with a focus on sales and marketing through weekly lectures. You will then apply these topics in creating a business plan for your own venture.
As well as learning how to develop your own venture you will explore what it is to become an entrepreneur. To support you in becoming an entrepreneur will also cover topics which will support the development of your entrepreneurial capabilities. Example topics which may be covered are:

Venture development topics

Lean start-up
Business model canvas
Developing your product/service portfolio
UK Company law and business structures
Developing business strategies
Customer profiling and market segmentation
Marketing for venture creation
Digital marketing
Sales processes for venture creation


Entrepreneurial capabilities topics
Goal setting and growth
Developing critical reflection techniques
Developing a growth mindset
Experiential and self-directed learning
Principles of coaching

The module aims to develop your understanding of the Cultural and Creative Industries and their role and function within social, cultural, economic and political contexts. You will explore the theoretical and practical underpinnings of industry management in relation to policy, political economy and socio-cultural literature, policies, and professional and industry sources. Using global, national and local case studies, you will examine topics such as creative and knowledge-based economies, creative cities, cultural value and cultural regeneration, linking theory to the current creative and cultural environment and practices such as those in the Newcastle-Gateshead region. You will be encouraged to critically evaluate discourses and debates in the sector relevant to your developing professional practice as cultural managers, with particular reference to contemporary issues such as globalisation, digital technologies, diversified audiences, labour conditions and sustainability.

From this framework you will begin to formulate knowledge and ideas for your Masters dissertation. You will begin to learn about how to conduct research, choose research methodologies and analyse research information. With guidance from your tutor and fellow students, you will develop a formative and preliminal proposal for your dissertation, and this plan will be refined throughout the following semesters.

This module enables you to learn first-hand within a cultural or creative industry organisation. It will enhance your knowledge of how a cultural or creative industry organisation functions, and your ability to critically analyse its structures and processes. You will observe the principles of organisational management through your placement duties within a working organisation. You will gain an appreciation of how an organisation’s governance, structures and systems are influenced by values, motivations, practices and working cultures on the ground.

This module will immerse you in the contemporary world of festivals, events and music management. You will be equipped and encouraged to critically evaluate economic, cultural, social, environmental and urban issues in the sectors relevant to your developing professional practice as a cultural manager. You will explore the importance of topics such as digital technologies, artists, audiences, marketing, risk, impacts and money to the industry. You will be challenged to think critically and creatively about the why, who and how of music, festival and events management, as a specialist area of the cultural and creative industries sector. Sessions will include hands-on planning and programming as well as instruction and seminars by experienced professionals

This module explores the principles, policies, institutions and practices of heritage management. You will be encouraged to critically evaluate current discourses and debate in the museums and heritage sectors relevant to your developing professional practice as cultural heritage managers. Through seminars, site visits and expert guests, you will develop your knowledge of the context and practices of museums, historic houses, monuments and archaeological sites. You will engage with contemporary issues and challenges within the museums and heritage sector, encountering and analysing the different ways that heritage and culture are perceived, studied and communicated in different institutions and environments. You will analyse and put into practice some of the important skills required in this sector, such as policy review, communications/marketing and programming/education, helping to develop your employability and enterprise skills.

This module will give an entrepreneurial and management focus to your creative interest in visual arts. You will learn how to facilitate arts and cultural expressions in community and commerial art settings, developing skills in organisational management, partnerships and fundraising, gallery administration, planning of exhibitions and programmes, digital technologies and cross-media marketing. You will be challenged to think critically and creatively about the why, who and how of visual arts and gallery management, as a specialist area of the cultural and creative industries sector. Sessions will include hands-on planning and programming as well as instruction and seminars by experienced professionals.

The Portfolio-Dissertation provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate ability as reflective practitioners and critical scholars, examining and engaging with a topic relevant to the field.
The Portfolio-Dissertation allows you to demonstrate enhURCanced employability by developing expertise in a specialist topic and applying useful methodologies to answer a research question. The module is designed to allow flexibility of approach and outcome, reflecting the multi-disciplinary context of cultural and creative industries management and the diversity of subject backgrounds with which each of you enters the programme.

You will select the form of Portfolio-Dissertation to suit your own individual research and practice interests. To do so you complete a learning contract with the approval of the module tutor and supervisory team orientating you towards:

EITHER A literature-based research dissertation, requiring a synthesis, critical review, exploration and further development of an academic issue or professional topic - using existing academic and scholarly literature and, if relevant, the interpretation of primary or historic sources OR An applied research dissertation, requiring a qualitative or quantitative application of research methods enabling you to explore a problem centred enquiry, combined with scholarly review of relevant knowledge. The applied dissertation normally involves you in developing an evidence base and interpreting primary data, you may undertake observational data collection, or may engage in secondary analysis of existing data. OR ALTERNATIVELY
A work or practice-based portfolio-dissertation, locating the academic issue or topic within the material developed during paid / voluntary work, reflecting the student’s own practice or other relevant activity. This portfolio-dissertation involves a evidencing a major project incorporating reflection on your managed practice or event, supported by a shorter academic dissertation (7500 words). Projects may include events, commissioned reports, or website design.

All dissertations will have a strong underpinning of theoretical and research context and will require a thorough literature review.

City planners have long been interested in the role of the arts as a vehicle for realising their social and economic objectives. And artworks, festivals and socially-engaged art projects have increasingly been integrated in rural development also (across academia and practice). Giving focus to the potentialities of their role in positioning and translating the arts, this module explores the remit of cultural managers in the complex urban and rural situational context of social inequality and environmental catastrophe.

Specifically you will consider how place-based and policy-related initiatives have inter-related with the work of cultural managers to date, and model how these working relationships could develop in the future. Drawing on the North East of England and other case studies from the 1990s onwards, you will consider the way the arts have been integrated within development strategies with particular focus on how artworks, cultural buildings, and festivals have been commissioned to ameliorate post-industrial decline. You will give attention to the tensions arising from these so-called ‘culture-led regeneration’ strategies – between economic and social agendas and consider the role of the arts manager in relation to what the arts do, and can do, for our future.

You will develop methods, skills and attributes for developing, delivering and evaluating art and artistic projects in the social, economic and environmental context of the city-region. You will identify and reflect on the values that are attributed to the arts in this context and consider how cultural managers can develop ways of working with other regional professionals to respond to the complexities of our human-nature environment. To do so you will consider how relational theories and methods can inform the practice of cultural management in the planning context; consider how academic work can inform future practice; and how practice can inform academia.

Illustrative topics include: culture-led regeneration; cultural planning; neo-endogenous development; philosophical pragmatism, planning and the arts; public art; socially-engaged art practice.

This module is designed to equip you with a range of critical, theoretical and practical approaches to curating Asian art. It introduces you to histories of curating, as well as contemporary debates, drawing on art forms and collections from India, Tibet, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea. Through seminars, expert guest lecturers, museum tours and a curatorial project you will develop your knowledge of the ideologies, politics and practices involved in curating Asian art. You will analyse different ways in which Asian art has been appropriated, interpreted, represented and exhibited at different historical periods and in different cultures, and will be encouraged to critically evaluate a range of displays. You will engage with contemporary ethical debates relating to the exhibition of sacred/religious material in museums, the increasingly important role of communities in interpreting and developing collections, as well as arguments for and against restitution.

You will develop the critical judgment, reflective practice and skills appropriate to planning and developing strategies for curating Asian art. The module introduces you to research methods that you will draw upon in the development of your assignments and personal research. You will learn how to deepen your enquiry through sustained questioning into aspects of curating Asian art that interest and inspire you. You will learn how to exchange and balance your experiences and ideas on the theme of curating Asian art with your peers. You will also learn to conduct research at post graduate level and the skills to become a strong independent learner.

In this module, you will consider approaches and methodologies that inform the practices of cultural management. You will consider different theories of practice including leadership and organisation and apply these to your own creative work now and in support of your future professional development in the creative and cultural sector. The emphasis throughout the module is on working relationships and how cultural managers of the future can develop their practice to respond to the complex challenges of our time.

You will identify and reflect on the unique skills, capabilities and understandings required to deal with such complexities. From public-sector supported organisations and institutions at one end of the scale to micro businesses and individual creative practitioners and artists at the other end, the environment in which these disparate activities take place is shaped by the political, social and economic environment, and it is the way that practitioners can respond to and work within this changing environment that you will interrogate. You will be encouraged and supported to consider your own skills development needs in this regard. CVs and professional development will be considered in support of your own career progression.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Effective reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.