The Art of Business

Posted by Brantlee Reid in Business

Business Chair Brad Bergsbaken emphasizes Santa Fe as an important element of SFUAD’s business arts management program.

Close your eyes. Picture your stereotypical art and design college. You float throughout the campus­—it’s crawling with activities: student filmmakers lugging glide cams and boom mics from scene to scene; creative writers enunciating their poetry at readings; dancers and actors rehearsing theatrically and dramatically in the performing arts department; photographers finding beauty in mundanity. These programs are easily forerunning in your imagination for obvious reasons. But what if you threw a business department into the realm of artistic studies? You picture algebra, accounting, math wizardry. It would look something like a sore thumb in an art school curriculum. So why attend Santa Fe University of Art and Design for a business degree? Brad Bergsbaken, department chair, sums it up in two words: Santa Fe.

When pursuing a career in arts business management, few locations are as advantageous than the first of nine globally designated Creative Cities. With SFUAD offering an art specific business program that caters to the creative community by engaging in gallery curation, media management, entertainment organization, innovation and entrepreneurship, all extremely imperative roles in the art world, it all make sense. “­I think that Santa Fe is the perfect location for a program like this,” Bergsbaken says. “Not only is it one of the largest art markets in the U.S., but I believe that it is the most accessible one. Students could walk into any number of galleries and museums in town and have frank conversations with gallery owners and managers.”

Danell Horan, a Creative Writing and Literature major and Business minor, sees the benefits of having a business degree. “I’ll use the skills I learn in the entrepreneurship to represent myself as a writer, market my books, and make connections. It’s all about business sense if you want to be a successful artist.” Horan also has big plans to pursue a project she informally dubs Dream Orphan, a camp for foster teenagers that aids them in pursuing their dream career so as not to become homeless when the system throws them out, and a few other innovative programs that include a study assistance for college students and an online specialty retail store. “The marketing class will help me with my business ideas in the sense that I learn to perform market research and build business strategy plans. Both of these are key in the success of any start-up or long-running business.”

Walter Borton stresses the value of being current with statistical data in Principles of Marketing.

Although the program is a new development for the college with a current enrollment of 28, internship and hands-on opportunities for students are abundantly available through SFUAD. “Students get internship opportunities that are stellar, from galleries to museums to art markets and festivals,” Bergsbaken says. On-campus activities such as Shoot the Stars®, Artists for Positive Social Change (A4PSC), and Outdoor Vision Fest (OVF) require executive planning, interdepartmental coordination, and event and festival management, all of which utilize certain skills learned in the art business and marketing program. Outside of school-run initiatives, students may also assist in some capacity with curation of galleries in the historic plaza, and one of three of the largest events in Santa Fe (next to OVF and Zozobra), FANTASE Fest, a popular downtown celebration that showcases Santa Fe’s innovative art community through installations, local food and musical performances, and even skateboarding. “Combining [these opportunities] with the experiences that they gain in the classroom prepares them very well for competing once they enter the job market,” Bergsbaken says.

Students can apply their degrees to a vast variety of careers within the entertainment and media management field, such as a budget director in arts organizations, manager of regional dance and music venues, arts marketing strategist, media relations, radio broadcast studio manager, and many more. Some example employers for these positions include nonprofits, museums, theatres, radio, television, and film industries, local, state, and federal governments, and record labels.

Just as a painter sits in front of a fresh canvas, or a writer before a white screen, cursor blinking like the clock ticking, an arts business student at Santa Fe University of Art and Design is afforded innumerable potentialities to create anything and everything, to forge their path into the world of creative possibility.