The MFA in Arts Management

Arts administration/management (AA/M) has evolved to the point of emerging as a mature academic field, increasingly institutionalized within higher education and demanding a larger and more highly credentialed faculty. Examining Master of Fine Arts (MFA) AA/M programs in North America, this brief study asks whether the MFA can serve as the viable credential for academically trained arts managers. The analysis suggests that no consensus about which advanced degree best reflects academic expertise relevant to all components of the field has been reached and that standards remain too unclear for the MFA to serve as a viable credential across artistic disciplines.