Center Leadership and Staff
Bolz Center faculty and staff deliver exceptional curriculum and applied learning opportunities for students. Our well-rounded team works tirelessly to ensure positive learning experiences for students.
The Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison has been building artful leaders for fifty years. The Bolz Center for Arts Administration supports the oldest and longest running graduate program in Arts Administration in the world. Named for the Bolz family in 1993, the generous gift by Robert, Anne, John (Jack), and Marian Bolz, and the Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Foundation, helped establish the Bolz Center as the leader in arts administration education.
The Bolz Center is committed to training leaders who are curious, life-long learners. Through focused curriculum, discussion, research, and analysis of arts and cultural nonprofit management, the Bolz Center refines our collective understanding of what it means to manage and lead in this challenging, rewarding, and ever-changing field.
The Center also serves as a model for exploration through consulting projects, national initiatives, and experiences that engage our alumni and colleagues around the world.
Our Programs
MA in Arts and Creative Enterprise Leadership
This one-year, full-time program helps you fuse creative and business skills to build a career in arts administration or social sector leadership.
MBA Career Specialization in Arts Administration
This two-year degree is one of ten specializations in the Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Program. Learn core strategic business skills and specialize with arts-focused projects, seminars, and work experiences.
Our Approach
The Bolz Center provides a student-centered, industry-relevant education in arts and cultural management. Three pillars guide our work.
Individualized Student Development
A degree in arts administration can take students in various professional and creative directions. Through academic and career advising, we work closely with each student to understand their goals and help them on their career path.
Interdisciplinary Education
Managers and administrative leaders of arts organizations provide a bridge between art, artists, audiences, and the communities they serve. Our curriculum combines the tools of business: management, marketing, finance, accounting, operations, and negotiations with the tools of community building: fundraising, development, education, and outreach.
Practical Hands-On Experience
One of the highlights of the Bolz Center is intentional hands-on experiences that complement the formalized classroom experience.
Explore the Bolz Center
Advisory Board
The Bolz Center Advisory Board provides guidance and support for the Bolz Center’s programs and projects, connects students to professional practice, and ensures a vital network in arts and cultural industries.
Conferences and Symposia
The Bolz Center regularly hosts national conferences that are open to all. Recent events have included conversation and exploration around the growing attention to community and creative placemaking.
Applied Learning
Students participate in applied learning activities, including trips, board leadership curricula and placement, and a year-long consulting project with a local organization or municipality.
Arts Business Initiative (ABI)
The Arts Business Initiative was launched in 2012 to address the needs of UW-Madison artistic and creative communities seeking business curricula. The Arts Enterprise curriculum helps them thrive in creative roles after graduation.
Invest
Gifts to the Bolz Center are welcome year-round and make a lasting impact on the experiences that we are able to provide for our students.
