Seattle University’s Arts Leadership MFA degree delivers the creativity, community, entrepreneurship, innovation, and management skills to lead in the arts. The first of its kind on the West Coast, the MFA Arts Leadership provides the essential entrepreneurship, social innovation, management, and advocacy skills vital to create change as a global leader in the arts sector. Seattle University's commitment to ethical leadership is at the core of our program, combined with professional development and complemented by a deep foundation of academic rigor and applied research. Throughout our program, you hone your skills and knowledge to build your arts leadership portfolio through applied practicums. In doing so, you will work with historic and emerging arts organizations, interview arts innovators, research arts and culture organizations, and more. For example, you apply coursework learning as a practicing arts leader through your graduate management practicum, working in organizations, interviewing arts practitioners, researching emerging issues within arts and cultural policy and more. Plus, a signature of our program is your capstone summary project, where you focus on a topic such a cultural sector, curatorial practice, public policy issue, or arts management. Seattle University’s MFA Arts Leadership program develops professional skills and strategic insight informed by a commitment to social justice. A key aspect of the program is development of a portfolio of practice in the field. Practicums are meant to help build a career through hands on, interactive experience. Examples of previous practicum locations include: Seattle Opera & Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet & Seattle Art Museum.
