The Arts and Cultural Management (ACM) degree prepares the student with the necessary global and comparative content in the arts, religions, humanities, and cultural innovations through the ages, and the management, marketing, and economic content related to the creative industries. The ACM curriculum teaches skills in qualitative and quantitative reasoning, entrepreneurship, data literacy, policy, management, leadership, collaboration, organization, and cultural analysis and interpretation.
To receive a bachelor's degree at Northern Arizona University, you must complete at least 120 units of credit that minimally includes a major, the general studies requirements, and university requirements as listed below.
The full policy can be viewed here.
In addition to University Requirements:
Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.
| Minimum Units for Completion | 120 |
| Major GPA | 2.0 |
| Highest Mathematics Required | MAT 114 |
| University Honors Program | Optional |
| Progression Plan Link | Not Available |
Purpose Statement
Arts and Cultural Management (ACM) is an umbrella term for programs in higher education that encompass cultural management, arts administration, arts leadership, arts management, and arts entrepreneurship. Programs at the undergraduate level prepare students to enter the field with the management skills required to sustain the mission and vision of organizations whose primary purpose is the delivery, presentation, and preservation of arts and culture. ACM degrees ensure students have familiarity with the practice and history of the arts AND have the business skills needed to operate in entrepreneurial, data-driven environments in the not-for-profit and for-profit arts sector ("Standards for Arts Administration Undergraduate Curricula," Association of Arts Administration Educators 2018). The Arts and Cultural Management BS at NAU will provide graduates with the tools to create, develop, evaluate, and lead arts and cultural heritage organizations.
Arts and Cultural Management prepares students with the cultural competencies, communication skills, and managerial practices necessary to work in the creative industries. The scope of the program covers trends, patterns, and particulars of global cultures together with the means and methods of preparing and managing cultural symbolic and material culture for a specific audience and context. The content studied will include ancient, modern, and contemporary visual arts, religions, literature, and values along with business management, marketing principles, and entrepreneurship. Skills developed will include the ability to understand and translate the meaning of material, solve problems relative to the communication of symbolic and material culture, and evaluate products through effective written and oral communication. Students' learning experiences will include individual and group presentations, research, interviews with experts in the field, design and development, evaluation and interpretation of models in a professional capstone, and a professional internship in the arts and cultural management domain. At the successful completion of the ACM BS, students will be able to demonstrate accurate cultural knowledge, work individually and collaboratively to develop and manage the dissemination of such knowledge and be well prepared to enter the career field of arts and cultural management or graduate study in humanities or business.
The ACM degree prepares students to develop, lead, and manage arts and cultural organizations and creative businesses. Students will be ready for careers as archivists, art directors/administrators, art consultants, booking agents, collection specialists, event planners, house managers, interpretative specialists, marketing associates, outreach coordinators, production managers, preparators (install and deinstall exhibits), resource consultants, sales associates, and social media managers in diverse sectors such as government, education, nonprofit, national and state parks, cultural heritage organizations and other socially oriented institutions. The degree also prepares students for graduate school in ACM, art history, business, and communications.
Student Learning Outcomes
This major requires 54 units distributed as follows:
Take the following 54 units:
Major Course Requirements (39 units)
Certificate Requirement (15 units)
Students enrolled in this plan may not enroll in or pursue the following:
Additional coursework is required if, after you have met the previously described requirements, you have not yet completed a total of 120 units of credit.
You may take these remaining courses from any of the academic areas, using these courses to pursue your specific interests and goals. You may also use prerequisites or transfer credits as electives if they weren't used to meet major, minor, or General Studies Requirements.
We encourage you to consult with your advisor to select the courses that will be most advantageous to you.
Some courses may have prerequisites. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.