Claremont Graduate University Arts Management Program: $100,000 grant from The Parsons Foundation

Feb. 23, 2009 - PRLog -- The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation in Los Angeles has donated $100,000 to the Arts Management master’s program at Claremont Graduate University in support of graduate fellowships.

CGU’s Arts Management program is a joint program of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management and the School of Arts and Humanities. The program is the only one of its kind in California and the only graduate program in arts management on the west coast. It addresses the shortfall of qualified managers of non-profit organizations in the arts sector, particularly in the Los Angeles region.  

“The Board of Directors was pleased to be able to make this contribution to building the capacity of future arts leaders,” added Wendy Garen, President and Executive Chief Officer of The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. “The board is aware of the extraordinary challenges and opportunities that the non-profit community has in today’s economy.”

The director of the program, Laura Zucker, is also the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

“The Arts Management program is providing our graduates with the tools to become global, national and local leaders of the arts; learning on the job can’t take the place of up-to-date professional management education,” Zucker said. “The program offers students the ability to learn from some of the most prominent arts managers in Los Angeles and gives them access to real professional experiences and networking opportunities."

The Arts Management program, created in 2004, also receives support from the Ahmanson Foundation for fellowships and the Norris Foundation for consulting clinics that connects students to arts organizations throughout the region. The program currently has seventeen students enrolled.

Students interested in the program can learn more about how to apply for fellowship assistance on the website, www.cgu.edu/am, or by contacting the program’s administrator Diana Luna at diana.luna@cgu.edu  or (909) 607-9109. A lunchtime informational session will be held in downtown Los Angeles on March 19, 2009.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is an independent institution devoted entirely to graduate study.  More than 2,000 students are studying for Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 22 disciplines.  Located 35 miles east of Los Angeles, CGU is part of a liberal arts consortium commonly known as The Claremont Colleges. The Claremont University Consortium (CUC) includes Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer colleges, plus the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, and Claremont Graduate University.

The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management

Named after Professor Peter Drucker in 1974, the Drucker School was established to satisfy the niche of part time executive management education.  Today, the school shares its name with one of the world’s most respected entrepreneurs, Masatoshi Ito, combining a thinker (Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management) with a doer (Masatoshi Ito, who built the largest retail network in Japan), and reflecting a decidedly global orientation. Drucker has some 4,400 alumni around the globe, many of whom are leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector.  The school is known for its innovative programs, which in addition to the Masters in Arts Management (AM), includes the traditional Master of Business Administration (MBA), the Executive Management Program (EMBA), a Master of Science in Financial Engineering (MSFE), a Master in Politics, and Business and Economics (MAPEB), as well as a variety of certificate programs and customized corporate executive education offerings  The Drucker School’s programs and degrees are unique in their focus on management as a liberal art, rather than specific concentrations on core business functions such as accounting, finance, or marketing.

The School of the Arts and Humanities

In addition to Arts Management, The School of the Arts and Humanities comprises the departments of Art, Cultural Studies, English, Music, History, and Philosophy.  Since their inception, these seven departments have offered a blend of theoretical and applied studies including areas of interest such as literature and film, American studies, early modern studies, oral history and, more recently, museum studies and archival sciences.  The campus environment promotes a shared intellectual experience across disciplines offered at the other eight Schools within the University.  Classes are small and student-centered, and the course of study can be customized to meet an individual student’s research interests.