Management Studio
Gain Real World Experience
SAIC’s Management Studio is a project-based series of leadership and management courses designed to give students an immersive studio-like learning experience. Through Management Studio, Arts Administration and Policy graduates spend their time working alongside artists, engaging with communities, building ethical systems, brainstorming avenues of financial support, installing exhibitions, dreaming up new public programs, traveling to worldwide art fairs, running music and dance festivals, working at theaters and performance venues, and staying in dialogue with the industry’s biggest art collectors.
You’ll hit the ground running after graduation because of the real-world experience you’ll gain. However the art world evolves, you’ll leave here with the skills and relationships to find work that taps into your passion—building the meaningful career you desire, both today and in the future.
| Management Studio I | Management Studio II |
| Focus: Systems of organizing culture and some of the major issues facing leaders in the arts. The projects, readings, and discussions reflect the complexity of this activity in different ways. Some projects include partners across the city while others might focus on start-up concepts requiring broad market research or investigate larger institutional and policy questions. | Focus: Skill-building through workshops in areas such as strategy development, fundraising, data, technology, evaluation, collaboration, project budgets, and communication strategy. Workshops include guest facilitators with particular areas of expertise, offering you an opportunity to build valuable relationships and leverage knowledge networks. |
Atlas Babcock (MA 2025)
"Management Studio is truly an amazing course. This class allowed me to connect meaningfully with arts organizations and the greater Chicago arts community. We got to work for Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. As a museum that has a 30+ year history, they wanted to create a recording booth where visitors could share stories about interacting with artists and their communities. My team was able to lay the groundwork for the eventual construction of the recording booth after researching case studies and legal requirements, meeting with an ethnographer, and connecting with other institutions that had successfully used recording booths in their spaces. We also needed to work with Intuit to solidify priorities like physical and language-based accessibility, technology, and other hopes for the booth. Overall, Management Studio allowed my team to get hands-on experience and connect with institutions that are doing amazing work in the Chicago community."
Nicole Laboy Zapata (MA 2025)
“Management Studio is one of the best components of SAIC’s MAAP program. It offers a unique opportunity for students to complete an arts-related administrative project with guidance and advice from Management Studio instructors. Our project involved contributing to the curation of the National Public Housing Museum’s Rec Room exhibition. This experience taught us the intricacies of organizing a community-centered curatorial project, covering everything from research to design and outreach. Additionally, by working under the mentorship of Director Lisa Lee, we observed how an experienced arts administrator applies the best practices and skills from class to their own work. Overall, Management Studio provided an incredible work experience and facilitated connections with professionals in the field that set examples for the kind of work I aspire to do in the future."
Jameson Paige (MA 2018)
“Right at the start of my studies at SAIC, the Management Studio curriculum provided me with the artistic agency and real-time constraints to thoughtfully produce public programs for projects happening across Chicago. I chose to work on projects that would allow me to develop a curatorial voice and portfolio, the most fruitful of which was the Borderland Collective's exhibition Northern Triangle. My colleagues and I collaborated to initiate a series of workshops, tours, and programs which culminated in a night of performances by current MFA students. This final program in particular ignited my curatorial and scholarly interest in performance practices which guided much of my subsequent graduate studies and thesis work. Without the excitement and accountability the Management Studio projects provide, I would not have solidified the interests that made my time at SAIC so productive, intentional, and hungry for what's next."
A Practice-Based Approach
Studying Arts Administration builds an intelligent elasticity: an ability to respond to art, artist, and intention; to adjust platforms for expression as needs outgrow and circumvent them; and to always remain nimble, ethical, conversational, and visionary enough to navigate the frontiers where status quo meets change.
Brendan Fernandes Studio & Foundation
This project examined hybrid organizational models as a strategy for establishing a physical facility and cultural hub dedicated to advancing the mission and legacy of the Brendan Fernandes Studio. The proposed model positions the studio as a multi-dimensional entity that embeds Fernandes’s artistic practice within a sustainable ecosystem designed to support artists and generate ongoing cultural production.
Forget Me Not featured 10 emerging and mid-career Chicago-based artists who showcase the city’s burgeoning creative talent and diversity. Curated by graduate students Helena Rodriguez, Isabelle Jaeggin, Serena Wolfe, and Tia Lowe, the show was on view from February 22 to April 25, 2026.
Chicago Arts Leaders Advocacy CommUNITY are working to develop a more cohesive and collaborative structure for innovative arts advocacy and resource sharing for arts leaders in the performing and visual arts sectors. The group partnered with Management Studio to create an advocacy needs assessment to support ongoing sector growth, engagement, support, and collective action.
This year-long project was anchored in neighborhood research and cultural mapping; stakeholder interviews with local artists, curators, arts organizations, and community leaders; and a collaborative design-thinking process. Students researched Chicago’s cultural ecosystem and developed profiles for arts district models nationwide.
Project Partners
In addition to lectures, discussions, and workshops, students work in teams on real projects with partners from the professional creative sector in Chicago and beyond. Here’s a list of just some of the partners we’ve worked with:
| Chicago Cultural Center | Intuit: Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art |
| Chicago Park District | Chicago Black Social Culture Map |
| Bosch Corporation | Millennium Park Foundation |
| Chicago Cultural Alliance | Arts Alliance Illinois |
| Hyde Park Art Center | Navy Pier |
| Lyric Opera of Chicago | Chicago Humanities Festival |
| Chicago Architecture Biennial | Chicago Dancemakers Forum |
| National Public Housing Museum | Experimental Sound Studio |
"Working with the students and faculty in SAIC’s Arts Administration and Policy Department through the Management Studio Program was an incredibly rewarding experience. The students approached the development of the Brendan Fernandes Foundation with openness, rigor, and professionalism, engaging deeply with the complexities of building an artist-led cultural organization. Their research, critical thinking, and collaborative spirit helped generate meaningful frameworks and ideas that will support the future realization of the foundation. I am deeply grateful for their dedication, curiosity, and commitment throughout the process." —Brendan Fernandes, Dance & Visual Artist