As a creative person, you love arts and culture, and understand why they are important. You'll have seen the benefits of creativity to people, places, and communities first-hand, and know that a creative career is viable, essential, and valuable.
You may be at the start of your career, or perhaps you've already begun to establish yourself as a practicing artist, independent producer, arts manager, or freelance creative. However you are looking to develop your practice and skills, expand your networks, and use your creativity to create change, this course has been designed to provide the tools for you to succeed.
Created with input from artist practitioners, independent producers, cultural business leaders, and leading arts organisations, this course provides opportunities to grow your creative entrepreneurialism, and to meet with industry professionals from across the UK and beyond.
We've worked alongside nationally significant organisations such as UK New Artists and Threshold Studios to develop our curriculum and so industry connections and live briefs are hard-wired into the programme. From the start of teaching, you will be meeting and talking to professionals from across the sector, working in a variety of roles and contexts. You will have opportunities to hear directly from potential employers and specialists, and receive bespoke advice to support your own career trajectories through our Professional Practice Clinic.
Based on the beautiful Brayford Pool Campus, and with significant professional and public engagement with Lincoln Arts Centre and the Barbican Creative Hub, (opening 2025), this programme can help you to take your ideas further and create your own opportunities for success.
Developed by experts and leading arts organisations
Engage directly with professionals from across the sector
Benefit from the University's expertise in both creative arts and business
Bespoke support from the Lincoln School of Creative Arts Professional Practic
The course consists of three terms, each with a selection of industry focused modules. The themes of each term include Understanding the Sector, Project Planning and Communications, and Professional Practice.
The course offers the opportunity to benefit from the University's expertise in both creative arts and business, and hear insights from industry professionals. You will have the opportunity to develop practical skills such as developing funding applications, producing marketing materials, creating public-facing presentations, and much more.
Applicants will be able to apply for PGCert (Semester A only), PGDip (Semesters A and B), and the full MA course (Semesters A, B, and C)* in line with your own professional working practices. This presents the opportunity for you to engage on your own terms (financial and schedule-wise), and to consider returning later to advance your studies further.
*The total number of credit points required for achievement of each level and exit award within this programme are:
Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) = 60 credits, Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip) = 120 credits, Master of Arts (MA) = 180 credits.
In the constant noise and clamour to be heard, we'll consider how to make our work stand out. We'll explore a variety of different traditional and non-traditional platforms and approaches to getting the message across, which will build into your own marketing, communications, and audience development package to support your practice or promote the work of others.
We'll be hearing from the Lincoln Arts Centre team and engaging with other professional cultural organisations to analyse and understand the strategies and campaigns that they've put in place. What worked, what didn't, and why?
This module is built around the Lincoln School of Creative Arts' Industry Speaker Series, and each week you'll have the opportunity to hear from, and speak to, a sector professional about their valuable work. We know that no two routes in to industry are the same, so we ask our speakers to reflect on their unique backgrounds, journeys, and the experiences and decisions that have ultimately informed their careers. You'll work in groups to understand the sector, and choose to deliver your findings as a case study report, or work with our LSCA experts to create your own podcast episode.
The series to-date includes speakers from: Kings Place and The London Podcast Festival, Mashi Theatre, The Spark- Leicester, Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Cambridge Arts, Manchester International Festival (MIF), BBC North, UK New Artists, Threshold Studios and Frequency Festival of Digital Culture, In Good Company, LaPelles Factory, Proto-type Theater, Forced Entertainment, Spymonkey, Zest Theatre, Lost Village Festival, and The Party Somewhere Else.
Arts and Culture have value, and in this module we’ll look at the different ways this might be defined. What is the real 'cost' of the work we undertake? What is it's value to people and places? Can we measure quality? Should we measure quality? Who gets to ask these questions and who doesn't? How might we fund what we do?
We'll look at the work of the sector in relation to the UK funding landscape, and through research, investigation, bid-writing, and group discussion, we'll learn how we might define value and how we might make the case for support to funders and potential partners.
You've designed your project or placement and now you'll put it into practice. This might be a practice-as-research project within your own artistic discipline; working alongside a festival delivery team to evaluate attender experience; proposing and delivering a marketing campaign to attract a new target audience; creating a 'Theatre Club' as an embedded critic with a venue or organisation; designing and running a creative fundraising event for an arts collective, theatre company, or band; or perhaps you'll be performing an accessibility audit for a venue or location.
Whatever you do, you'll be working in a professional context with supervision and support from your academic teams - all while building your networks and gaining valuable experience.
Ever wanted to change the world? In this module you'll identify a need and pose a solution – designing your own industry project or placement. You'll then pitch your ideas directly to artists, professional creatives, arts organisations, and cultural sector employers for the chance to work alongside them to deliver your vision.
This is a co-delivered module drawing on the cultural sector skills of the Lincoln School of Creative Arts and the project management expertise of Lincoln International Business School.
People and place are crucial to how we position our artistic and cultural outputs, and we need to understand how we might connect to those we most want to reach with our work. Through this short seminar-based module you’ll have the opportunity to understand and analyse audience engagement from A to B.
We'll look at the work of the cultural industries in relation to social justice, equality, diversity, inclusivity, and decolonisation - and consider how we might remove the barriers on the visitor experience journey. You'll analyse what you discover and share your findings through infographics, posters, or webpages.
This module has been created by experts from Lincoln International Business School who are dedicated to teaching leadership that empowers people to be ambitious, to challenge, and to innovate.
† Some courses may offer optional modules. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed. Optional module selection may also be affected by staff availability.
We want you to have all the information you need to make an informed decision on where and what you want to study. In addition to the information provided on this course page, our What You Need to Know page offers explanations on key topics including programme validation/revalidation, additional costs, and contact hours.
Could this be you?
From creating their own Arts Collective to getting an Internship in the Industry, Quinn and Cat share their experience studying MA Arts and Cultural Management at the University of Lincoln.
We know that working in the creative sector often requires you to create a wide variety of public-facing outputs and documents. We take a no essays approach where every assessment type is designed to mimic the kinds of presentations and publications you might encounter in a creative career and help you gain valuable experience.
You will have the opportunity to develop your professional skills, showcase your learning and create a range of industry-standard outputs for assessment that may include:
- Creating a podcast episode about the work of contemporary artist, company, or cultural organisation
- Building a funding application based on a particular funding body's bid application process (e.g. Arts Council England)
- Creating arts marketing and communication documents including press releases, audience development plans, marketing campaigns, copy/blurb, and frameworks for evaluation
- Producing an infographic, poster, webpage, or similar to visually communicate your creative ideas
- Creating public-facing presentations which you can deliver directly to industry experts to pitch your projects and plans
- Participating in panel-style discussions with artists, cultural organisations, and academics
- Compiling critical evaluation reports around your own practice and the work of the sector
You will receive supportive feedback throughout your studies, as well as after each key assessment point. Your tutors and industry professionals will be on-hand throughout the course to offer advice to help you develop your professional practice and creative career.
Your final project (full MA programme only) will respond directly to live briefs set by established cultural organisations and could take the form of an industry placement, or a research project with a specific and impactful set of goals. You will be encouraged to identify challenges, propose solutions, and gain valuable CV-building experience. You will be provided with a small materials budget to support this work.
Postgraduate Application Support
Applying for a postgraduate programme at Lincoln is easy. Find out more about the application process and what you'll need to complete on our How to Apply page. Here, you'll also be able to find out more about the entry requirements we accept and how to contact us for dedicated support during the process.
To apply for this programme, please use our online application form. You can select the version of the programme you wish to apply for below.
MA Full Master's PG Dip PG Cert
If you apply for this course, you will be required to take part in an interview. There is no particular portfolio requirement for the interview, though you are welcome to provide documentation or links to your work/practice in advance. This will be especially useful to see from those applicants joining or returning to study from arts sector employment or freelance working.
A 2:1 honours degree in a relevant subject area, or experience of the professional, commercial, or subsidised arts sector, which may include (but is not limited to):
- Freelance artistic facilitation or practice
- Producing (independent, venue/organisation)
- Arts marketing or arts/culture specific administration
- Grant development and fundraising
If you have studied outside of the UK, and are unsure whether your qualification meets the above requirements, please visit our country pages https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/internationalstudents/entryrequirementsandyourcountry/ for information on equivalent qualifications.
Overseas students will be required to demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in each element. For information regarding other English language qualifications we accept, please visit the English Requirements page:
For further advice on IELTS and the support available, please contact the International College by email at internationalcollege@lincoln.ac.uk.
You will need to have funding in place for your studies before you arrive at the University. Our fees vary depending on the course, mode of study, and whether you are a UK or international student. You can view the breakdown of fees for this programme below.
The University offers a range of merit-based, subject-specific, and country-focused scholarships for UK and international students. To help support students from outside of the UK, we offer a number of international scholarships which range from £1,000 up to the value of 50 per cent of tuition fees. For full details and information about eligibility, visit our scholarships and bursaries pages.
Postgraduate Funding Options
Find out more about the optional available to support your postgraduate study, from Master's Loans to scholarship opportunities. You can also find out more about how to pay your fees and access support from our helpful advisors.
This programme enables artists and creatives who have recently graduated, and those already working within the industry, to maximise the transferable skills from their studies/professional-experience-to-date and refocus on planning, producing, project management, facilitation, and leadership.
Potential career routes could include cultural leadership, arts management, marketing and communications for arts and culture, social media and content creation, self-producing artist/practitioner, fundraising and bid-writing, project management, accessibility champion, workshop design, visitor experience and tourism, outreach and participation leadership, arts education, or further study at PhD level.
For more information about this course, please contact the Programme Leader.
Rachel Baynton
rbaynton@lincoln.ac.uk
Rachel is a professional artist, producer, and academic working in cross-artform contexts. She is Associate Professor and Creative Engagement Producer for the Lincoln School of Creative Arts, and her work focuses on collaboration, co-creation, and contemporary cultural production. She is Co-artistic Director of Proto-type – a company of multidisciplinary artists making original performance work including the socially-engaged 'A Machine They’re Secretly Building', which was part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase, and long-listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Rachel regularly works as a writer, director, and performer with companies, cultural organisations, and major commissioning partners around the UK. She is a regular presenter for BBC Radio, Associate Chair of UK New Artists, and is on the board of Trustees for Zest Theatre.
To get a real feel for what it is like to study at the University of Lincoln, we hold a number of dedicated postgraduate events and activities throughout the year for you to take part in.
