Trustees Approve M.A. in Arts Policy + Administration

OHIO STATE APPROVES M.A. IN ARTS POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

     COLUMBUS -- A new degree program in the College of the Arts will help
fill a need nationwide for art museum directors, and for arts administrators
who understand the complex issues that surround public arts education,
politics and aesthetics.

     The Ohio State University Board of Trustees established the Master of
Arts degree in arts policy and administration Friday (5/5).  The proposal
moves on to the Ohio Board of Regents for final approval.  Ohio State
expects to implement the degree program in autumn 1995.

     The M.A. will be an interdisciplinary program housed in the Department
of Arts Education, but supported by the School of Public Policy and
Management in the Fisher College of Business.  Students will choose
electives from business, education, law, music, dance, theater, philosophy,
political science, English and the humanities.

     "The university already has a significant number of students pursuing a
specialization in arts policy and administration within the M.A. and Ph.D.
degree programs in arts education and the Master of Public Administration in
public policy and management," said Constance Bumgarner Gee, assistant
professor of art education and coordinator of the program.  The Department
of Art Education has been developing the program since 1984.

     "The focus of the M.A. in arts policy and administration is very
different from other programs around the country," Bumgarner Gee said.  "The
study of arts policy -- its formulation, analysis, interpretation and
evaluation -- is primary."

     Graduates will be arts policy makers and administrators.  They will
able to:

-- Critically assess the value and impact of legislation and programming.

-- Recognize and seek solutions to potential and existing conflicts of
policy and practice.

-- Understand the concept of comprehensive art education and its
relationship to arts policy and public education.

-- Participate in federal, state or local policy making.

     Also, Ohio State's program emphasizes arts education.  "We are
convinced the time has long since passed when the general public's education
and participation in the arts could be considered apart from, and often
external to, government subsidy of the arts," Bumgarner Gee said.

     Funding for the new program will come from reallocations within the art
education department and the College of the Arts.

     Also, the Barnett Endowment funds an annual lecture series and a
biennial Arts and Public Policy Symposium.  The symposium will be held this
year on May 19 and 20, with the theme, "Good Policy, Bad Policy, No Policy:
The Arts and Education."  A second endowment, the Lawrence and Isabel
Barnett Fellowship Fund, provides a scholarship and $9,000 stipend for two
years to an arts policy and administration student.

                              #

Contact: Constance Bumgarner Gee, (614) 292-5356


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 9 May 1995 16:22:08 -0400]
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