Our fair college, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, is one of the very few colleges throughout the nation to offer Arts Management as an undergraduate degree. Most other colleges and universities offer arts management as a secondary masters program, often focusing specifically on museum management or study. So why does a small liberal arts school in the affectionately-titled North Adams “middle of nowhere” Massachusetts offer this specific, rarefied degree. To answer that, we need to talk about the Berkshires.
The Berkshires as a whole span throughout the northwest corner of our great commonwealth of Massachusetts, and are comprised of a variety of fairly small towns and cities such as Lee, Stockbridge, Williamstown, and of course our own North Adams. Nestled in what is by-far the most mountainous and relatively remote region of Massachusetts, the Berkshires may come off as somewhat out of the way and insignificant. In relatively this could not be further from the truth. You see, within the Berkshires lies and extremely strong mix of arts and culture opportunities catering to virtually every aspect of today’s wide artistic canvas. Looking to work with dance? We have Jacob’s Pillow. Music? Try out Tanglewood for size. Multimedia modern-art extravagance? Mass MoCa is right down the road from campus. How about fine art (Monet, Degas, Picasso, and so much more)? The Clark Art Institute is just a 10-minute drive!
It is a rare treasure to have a large amount of prestigious art organizations within such close proximity without finding oneself smack dab in the middle of a major metropolitan area; this is what makes the Berkshires such an inredible place to study, pracice and suceed in the Arts Management field.
And oh, do our students suceed. As part of the Arts mangement program here at MCLA, all students must pursue, obtain, and complete an internship within the Arts and Culture field. Students regularly intern at organizations such as the Clark Art, Mass, MoCa, Shakespeare and Co., Jacobs Pillow, Downstreet Art, and any number of other smaller arts organizations within the area (there is quite a few!) Now interning in order to gain business skills is one thing, but success is something entirely differt. Sucess for our arts management students all comes in practice; establishing connections and using those connection to create a career before one has even graduated. We see this very often with our students, as many trasntion seamlesely from intern to paid full-time employee simply through putting in work and forging connections with the many powerful arts orgaqnizations the Berkshire has to offer. This why Arts Management is such a sucessfull undergraduate program here at MCLA and for the Berkshire area in general. But don’t take my word for it. Enrollment is open; come find out for yourself!