University of Wisconsin-Madison Arts Business Initiative
March 16, 2018
The Wisconsin School of Business, the Division of Continuing Studies, and the Arts Institute partner to provide business skills to budding artists and creative professionals.
The Arts Business Initiative was launched in 2012 in response to an identified need on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Our artistic and creative communities were in need of business skills, which would allow them to thrive in creative industries once they left campus. Through the initial spark and funding of a Kauffman Foundation Grant, led by Stephanie Jutt of the School of Music, the Bolz Center for Arts Administration partnered with Jutt to fund and deliver a suite of arts and business coursework, under the heading of Arts Enterprise, which became both a course and a franchised club on campus.
Arts Enterprise curriculum marked the beginning of a partnership with the School of Business in the drive to offer business skills and foundational coursework in business and entrepreneurship to artists and other creatives on campus. Arts Enterprise has been followed up by the development of additional coursework, an entrepreneurship competition called the New Arts Venture Challenge (founded by Jutt and now funded and supported by the Arts Institute), the connection of coursework and internship credit to the Certificate of Entrepreneurship, which is available to any student on campus, and coursework and training for BBA students in aesthetic development for leadership training.