The following is a guest post by Professor Nishant Shah, Felix Seyfarth, and Mariam Haydeyan of Leuphana Digital School.

The 14-week online course “Managing the Arts: Marketing for Cultural Organizations” is a collaboration between Goethe-Institut and the Digital School at Leuphana University. It is offered as a Mentored Open Online Course. A ‘Mentored’ Open Online Course will include mentors to guide and support the individual and community learning processes along the entire course duration. There will be an emphasis on digital mentorship and a knowledge flow informed by principles of connected learning that invites learners to work with real-life case scenarios of four cultural institutions in different parts of the world. It will include diverse academic discourse from different disciplines, and collaborative practice with multiple stakeholders. It will be moderated by Chris Dercon, Director of Tate Modern art gallery in London, who will guide learners through the six consecutive course phases, the course kicks off on February 19th.

“We are excited that Goethe-Institut is embracing the Mentored Open Online Course format to offer university-level education to cultural administrators, arts practitioners and beyond. The response has been fantastic – hopefully this will be the first of many such course offerings to come: For many dedicated arts managers it offers a welcome opportunity to reflect upon their work and learn amongst peers.” Felix Seyfarth, MOOC Facilitator

The course places art and cultural management in the context of rapid globalization and attention economies as well as the rise of new processes of cultural production and consumption related to the digital paradigm. It maps transitions within cultural and creative industries to focus on processes of curation and aggregation, audience engagement, brand and reputation management, all of which take place as continuous negotiations with changing economic and policy landscapes create uncertainty for art practices and cultural projects. There will be various sources of information:

•    Expert keynotes
•    Annotated reading lists
•    Mentored discussion spaces
•    Collaborative group exercises

These sources will help learners understand different roles, modes of engagement, styles of functioning, and professional scales of arts and cultural management. The course offers opportunities for participatory learning and building strong cross-sector networks as it aims for an interdisciplinary community of journalists, policy-makers, funders, researchers, artists, activists and development agencies to converse with arts administrators and cultural managers.

The architecture and learning design of the course was pioneered by Leuphana Digital School in the widely acclaimed “Think Tank Cities” MOOC with Prof Daniel Libeskind. It invites thousands of learners to participate in a massive learning community, while contributing their insights within small working groups under the individual guidance of tutors and mentors. The MOOC builds on premises of collaborative, problem-based learning and targeted support for all course members. Course participants choose their own levels of commitment based on their interest, motivation and prior knowledge. Learners seeking a certificate for course completion that may qualify for full academic credits (5 ECTS) are invited to partake fully as a ‘Participant’ during the six assignments phases that comprise the course. Those interested in the knowledge and learning processes but unable to commit the required workload may engage as a ‘Supporter’ in the MOOC, which requires less involvement. Facilitators of the MOOC and academic staff will moderate the community learning processes with a focus on networking, social interaction and peer-review processes.

‘Participants’ and ‘Supporters’ of “Managing the Arts” will have the chance to:

•    Gain insights from distinguished academics and experts
•    Join a global community in the discourse about arts and its management
•    Have access to a fully digitized reader
•    Apply their knowledge and experience to real-life cases from Bangkok, Berlin, Budapest and Lagos

Additionally, those acting as ‘Participants’ will:

•    Work on six assignments in teams of five
•    Learn from trained tutors and mentors, experts in their respective field
•    Obtain a university certificate after successful completion of the course

If you are interested in finding out more, join “Managing the Arts”, reflect, learn and contribute your views to the debate on the future of arts administration and curatorial practices.