Creative and Cultural Industries Management MSc

Program Overview

The MSc Creative and Cultural Industries Management program at Sheffield University equips students with the skills and knowledge to manage creative enterprises and cultural organizations in the modern world. Through a combination of core and optional modules, students develop an understanding of critical theories, marketing, digital technologies, and research methods in the field. The program offers opportunities for internships, guest speakers, and cultural field trips, preparing graduates for careers in various aspects of the creative and cultural industries.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MSc Creative and Cultural Industries Management program is designed to equip students with the critical skills and essential knowledge needed to become successful managers in the cultural and creative sector. The program draws on the research, knowledge, and workplace experience of a talented team of academics who offer an excellent understanding of the business demands of managing creative enterprises and cultural organizations in the modern world. Students are encouraged to make use of Sheffield's strong creative and cultural brands such as Museums Sheffield, S1, Showroom Cinema, and Sheffield Theatres.

Outline:

The program is a one-year full-time program. It is structured around a combination of core and optional modules.

Core Modules:

• Accounting and Financial Management: This module introduces students to the objectives, techniques, and limitations of accounting for external accountability and internal decision-making and control.
It also covers financial investment appraisal and the provision of financial resources. (15 credits)
• Introduction to Critical Theories and Concepts in the Creative and Cultural Industries: This module defines the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) and explores their role in society.
It examines various CCI sectors, including theatres, museums, the music industry, and film, and explores ideas around their purposes, changes, and challenges. (15 credits)
• Cultural Marketing: This module develops students' understanding, knowledge, and analytical skills in relation to marketing and consumption practices within the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs), specifically in relation to the CCI business context, types of CCI organizations, and marketing management practices.
The module content includes theoretical approaches to marketing and consumption practices in a range of CCI sectors, such as film, fine art, music, literature, and heritage. (15 credits) Students will synthesize knowledge from CCI theory, up-to-date industry examples, and guest speakers who work at the forefront of these digital transformations. Students will be equipped with the skills to critically evaluate the use of technologies in CCIs, to address their opportunities, risks, and potential harms. (15 credits)
• Research Methods: This unit provides an introduction to a wide range of research methods used in management research.
It prepares students for their dissertation by helping them to make an informed choice of objectives and methods (design, data collection, and analysis) for their own research. It also prepares students to review the literature and critically evaluate the methods used by others, to consider ethical issues around research, and to prepare a plan for their dissertation research. (15 credits)
• Project Dissertation: This unit requires the student to research a topic appropriate to the field of management.
The topic chosen by the student must receive approval from a supervisor. The study, and the resulting dissertation, may take the form of an academic research or of a managerial problem-solving exercise. In either case, it requires the student to apply critical analysis and to set the issues within the context of appropriate management literature. (45 credits)

Optional Modules:

• Heritage, History and Identity: This module highlights the diversity of cultural heritage, ranging from cultural and 'natural' landscapes, through monuments to music, dress, cuisine, 'traditional' crafts, and language and dialect.
It explores the role of these various forms of heritage in shaping local, regional, and national identity; the extent to which they reflect or misrepresent local, regional, and national history; the legal and ethical issues surrounding conservation and preservation of heritage; and how study of 'traditional' lifeways may contribute to understanding of history. (15 credits)
• Management and Organisational Theory: This module explores the fundamentals of various theories of organization, and how organizational management influences functioning.
It brings together theory and practice in encouraging students to view organizations from different perspectives to develop a more comprehensive understanding of organizational theory and approaches to managing organizations. By analyzing the usefulness and drawbacks of different approaches, both classical and strategic, it enables students to reach their own conclusions as to which approach might be suitable in a particular circumstance. The approaches are set in the context of understanding organizational structures and management, together with the behaviours of those who populate organizations. (15 credits)

Optional Modules (Choose three):

• Digital Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice: This module examines the theoretical and methodological advances in Digital Cultural Heritage and their broader implications in fields concerned with the interpretation and presentation of the past.
We will draw on theoretical readings as well as analyze the potential benefits and drawbacks of certain digital and online approaches. A major component of this module will be a semester-long project that will require the development of a proposal for a digital cultural heritage project. (15 credits)
• Heritage, Place and Community: The aim of this module is to introduce the theory and practice of heritage, conservation, and public archaeology.
The module will encourage debate on issues that affect how we define and apply the term 'heritage'. It also offers an opportunity to focus on the historic 'value' of a site or landscape, with an evaluation of how it is currently managed, and strategies for its future conservation and presentation. (15 credits)
• Managing Festivals, Events and Creative Performances: This module explores the growth development, characteristics, issues, and influences relevant to international art fairs, festivals, artistic performances, and events and their impact on localities in terms of income generation, providing added value to tourist spaces, and their role in showcasing cultures and cultural products and places.
It is primarily concerned with management of those art fairs, exhibitions, and events that either showcase cultures or are located within the broad field of Creative and Cultural Industries, providing access to cultural products and cultural capital. (15 credits)
• Managing Museums and Cultural Heritage Sites: The module defines and critically appraises the concepts and dimensions of museums and heritage spaces and examines the politics and uses of such sites.
It considers local museums, World Heritage Sites, and 'Starchitecture' new builds such as the Guggenheim, Bilbao, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It examines policy, funding, and the day to day management of individual museums and heritage spaces against the background of national government agendas and inter-governmental agreements that underpin large-scale developments. It looks at provision of such cultural spaces from both the operator and visitor management perspectives and includes site visits within the locality. (15 credits)
• Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship is vital to a flourishing cultural and creative sector.
This module bridges the gap between creativity, culture, and business by enabling learners to develop techniques that move their creative and critical thinking to entrepreneurial thinking. The module equips those who have previously studied or engaged with an area of creative or cultural practice, such as music, media, theatre and performance, heritage, craft, design, or digital games, to start a new business arising from existing or new creative and cultural practices, to manage a portfolio of loosely connected projects in the cultural and creative industries, and to develop intrapreneurial skills for innovation in existing organizations in the cultural and creative industries. It enhances learners' skills as creative leaders who can respond to emerging trends and opportunities to realize value in the creative economy. (15 credits)
• Branding: This unit engages students with different theoretical perspectives on the nature of brands, their management, and the relationship between brands and their socio-cultural context.
The learning process exposes the students to a wide range of brand examples. Students draw on the theoretical perspectives to write an analytical critique of a specific leisure brand. (15 credits)
• Staging Music in Theory and Practice: This unit is practice-based as students develop and run a one-day music-related event within the local community.
There will be theoretical input on the nature and impacts of, and planning for, art-oriented festivals and events including marketing and the practical application of legal and health and safety principles. (15 credits)

Assessment:

The program is assessed through a combination of individual assignments, group projects, end-of-semester examinations, and a dissertation.

Teaching:

The program is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, case studies, group work for collaborative learning, and web-based discussion groups.

Careers:

The program prepares students for a variety of careers in the cultural and creative industries, including:

• Arts management
• Cultural policy
• Heritage management
• Event management
• Marketing and communications
• Fundraising
• Project management

Other:

• The city of Sheffield is an exciting place to specialize in the creative and cultural industries thanks to its internationally renowned museums and galleries, thriving music scene, and one of the largest regional theatre complexes outside London.
• The city regularly hosts high-profile exhibitions as well as stages its own events in several pop-up and DIY venues.
• Sheffield boasts a vibrant creative industries quarter and frequently sends its theatrical productions to the West End.
• Cultural field trips to experience creative programs at various destinations are an integral part of this course, and guest speakers working in the sector provide professional expertise.
• Volunteering opportunities in the sector may also be available.
• You can also apply to base your dissertation on a project with a high-profile arts organization or event in the city.

Home (2024 annual fee) : £14,800 Overseas (2024 annual fee) : £31,000