The Wisconsin Full-Time MBA curriculum integrates a strong foundation in general management with highly focused preparation in your chosen career field. You will begin taking courses in your career specialization during the first semester of the program. This early start helps you achieve your full potential and makes your applied learning experiences richer.

Applied learning experiences in arts administration include leadership service on a nonprofit board, and consulting projects designed to assess and create capacity for both regional and national arts organizations as part of the capstone experience. These experiences are combined with in-class learning and discussion to reflect back the practical learning.

Applied practice with local organizations through work mentorship assignments, and the opportunity to interact with industry leaders during on-site visits to arts sector organizations in major cultural centers throughout the United States, are two other ways we make networking and applied learning a priority in the Wisconsin MBA Program in arts administration.

Customize Your MBA with Flexible Options

Electives give you the flexibility to shape a course of study that meets your individual needs. You can also focus on an area of interest to you by pursuing one or more graduate-level certificates in topics such as business analytics, entrepreneurship, strategic innovation, and sustainability.

First Year

First Semester

  • Data to Decisions*
  • Financial Accounting*
  • Introduction to Financial Management*
  • Leading and Working in Teams*
  • Operations Management* 
  • Marketing Management*
  • Arts Administration Seminar

Second Semester

  • Ethics, Integrity and Society*
  • Integrated Company Analysis*
  • Business Strategy*
  • Economics for Managers*
  • Arts Administration Seminar
  • Association of Performing Arts Presenters/Dawson Research Project

Second Year

First Semester

  • Strategic Consulting Project/Capstone
  • Negotiations
  • Nonprofit Board Leadership
  • Electives (2)

Second Semester

  • Strategic Consulting Project/Capstone
  • Nonprofit Board Leadership
  • Applied Learning
  • Electives (2)

*Core courses, taken by all Wisconsin Full-Time MBA students, provide a foundation in key functional areas of business and essential managerial skills. The curriculum shown is representative of the course of study; specific course offerings may vary.

Katerina Herder

“Our core classes focused on the utilization of skills and methods in the corporate world, and the Arts Administration Seminar gave us the opportunity to see how many of these skills can apply in the nonprofit arts industry. Both the strategy seminar and our final presentations to our host organizations showcased the impact of the core curriculum, and how it informed us as arts administrators.”

— Katerina Herder, MBA '17