Teaching business to the arts world

By Peter Walker for CNN

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- One of the biggest trends in modern business education is trying to help future executives be more creative in their thinking.

As documented before on Executive Education, students are now exposed to everything from the craft of acting (read here) to art gallery visits (read here) and lessons from works of literature (read here).

However, a leading Italian school is now taking a parallel approach -- teaching those in the creative world to be more businesslike.

Bocconi University, based in the northern Italian city of Milan, home of the famous La Scala opera house among other cultural treasures, has since 1999 offered an undergraduate course in such management.

Now it is going a stage further, and from September this year would-be executives in the creative world can begin an MSc in Economics and Management in Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment.

Taught entirely in English, the course is aimed at managers and professionals in industries such as cultural heritage, media, entertainment, fashion and design.

The two-year program will see students explore economic, legal and managerial issues relevant to their industries and develop specific managerial skills.

As well as taking a mixture of general and specialized courses, the students will be encouraged to test out their skills in seven so-called "learning laboratories" aimed at specific areas such as cultural heritage, cultural tourism and design.

Real world experience

They will also have the chance to undertake placements and research at institutions partnered with the university such as the Rome-based International Center for the Study and Preservation of Cultural Property, which manages archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, and the elite Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, in the central Italian city of the same name.

Those taking the undergraduate version of the course have previously gone on to work for organizations including the Royal Opera House in London, EMI, Virgin and MTV.

There was now clearly room for a more advanced equivalent, program director Stefano Baia Curioni said.

"After eight years it became clear that the overall transformation of the cultural industries, arts markets and the growing attention paid to creative activities by institutions has produced a demand for high-level managerial capabilities with an international perspective," he said.

The international perspective comes from the opportunity for students to take part in one of several dual degree programs that Bocconi has established with other universities, such as Copenhagen Business School in Denmark and Science Po in Paris.

Some will also get the chance to carry out internships with institutions such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

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