UCAS Code W450 BA/MP
Duration: 3 years (4 years with year abroad or year in industry)
Programme Catalogue

• Are you keen to learn about the business of managing and producing creative work?
• Do you enjoy teaming up with other creative people on collaborative arts projects?
• Do you want to explore how creativity can be an agent for cultural, social, and economic change?
• Are you eager to explore and develop your own projects in creative and social entrepreneurship?


So why should I take a degree in Managing Performance?

• Employment in the sector has grown at double the rate of the economy as a whole.
• Among the ‘skills gaps’ in the creative industries, UK employers report a shortage of individuals with management and leadership skills to produce and monetize creative content (‘Strategic Skills Assessment for the Creative Industries’, Creative and Cultural Skills, Jan. 2010)
• Creative employment in the UK provides some 2 million jobs in the creative sector and in creative roles in other sectors.

Course Overview
For the Programme Catalogue link through here

In Managing Performance, students explore the theory and practice of leadership, management, and entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries. Through case studies, practical projects, and your own research and exploration, you will examine issues in strategy, leadership, marketing, entrepreneurship, and ethics.

While our focus is performance and the performing arts, students have opportunities to examine other creative industry sectors such as music, museums, heritage, fashion, creative digital technologies, marketing and public relations.

The first-year modules are the same for all students, providing a common foundation for years 2 and 3, when you will have increasing scope to choose modules that reflect your interests. Between years 2 and 3 you may also opt for an additional year of study abroad or a year-long placement in a cultural organisation or creative industries firm.

Level 1 Study

Managing Events (20 credits)
Students develop an understanding of the principles and practices involved in planning and managing of events in a range of different situations, including live projects. The fundamentals of quality are explored along with an exploration of the tools of quality management, project planning, and event management.

What Is Managing Performance? (20 credits)
Managers perform many different roles in organisations, especially in an arts and cultural industries context.  Students develop understandings of the implications of practising these roles and through this develop an awareness of the complexity and uncertainty of managing, whilst starting your own development as a manager.

Performance Perspectives (20 credits) and Cultures of Performance (20 credits)
These two modules form a common spine of learning for all PCI students. The aim is to introduce you to a range of perspectives on contemporary performance (e.g. space, time, technology, the body, organisation, interactivity) and key theories and concepts in culture and performance (e.g. popular culture, performance and everyday life, semiotics, phenomenology, gender  and identity, creativity and control).

Collaborative Process (20 credits)
Here students work together in interdisciplinary groups through the medium of performance. The aim is to explore creative, collaborative processes and concepts and to facilitate the exchange of ideas. You define your own role within the team, learn how to develop ideas in collaboration and reflect on your individual contributions to the group.

Elective Module (20 Credits)
Students choose an elective module from a vast array of possibilities offered through many departments across the University. In the School of Performance and Cultural Industries Level 1 electives include: Exploring the Musical, Stage Management, Dance Technique

 

 

Level 2 Study - All Managing Performance Students take Managing in Arts Organisations, Cultural Entrepreneurship, Strategies for Research and a Collaborative Performance Project.  You then choose two of the school options or an option and elective according to the particular focus you wish to pursue in your degree programme.

Managing In Arts Organisations (20 credits)
This module provides you with a broad understanding of arts management practice from an organisational perspective. While the focus is on producing in the performing arts, students examine practices common to charitable creative organisations such as programming, finance and budgeting, income generation, fundraising, and volunteer management.

Cultural Entrepreneurship (20 credits)
Our focus in this module is entrepreneurialism in the creative industries. We examine entrepreneurialism from two perspectives: an individual working within an organisation to advance new ventures and an independent entrepreneur developing a venture idea. You research and develop your own venture idea in the creative industry of your choice, whether music, dance, theatre, museums, digital technologies, and fashion.

Strategies for Research (20 credits)
How can we know what impact performance and the cultural industries have on society? How can we investigate aspects such as creativity and collaboration? This module looks at the ways in which new knowledge in the cultural industries can be developed. Students are introduced to the way different methods can be applied to real-life examples and they explore ways in which they would go about pursuing their own research project.

Collaborative Performance Project (20 credits)
This module allows students to evaluate the role of performance in culture and society through a live project. Working in interdisciplinary groups, students bring their specialist skills to a collaborative performance project with a partner organisation from outside the University.  Recent partners have included Opera North, West Yorkshire Fire Service, New Hall Prison, West Yorkshire Playhouse, The National Mining Museum and Leeds City Art Gallery.

Semester One or Semester Two Option  - Independent Industry Study (20 credits)
Students undertake a placement within a relevant professional context and then evaluate both the placement and their learning arising from it. The placement can take place over a short intense working period or be spread out over a number of weeks depending on what is appropriate and practical. Examples include arts organisations, music industry, events management, broadcast media, public relations, advertising agencies, companies working within communities.

Semester One Option - Dance in Context (20 Credits)
The module studies the application of dance in a variety of contexts. It focuses on agendas such as inclusion, empowerment, ownership, and self-expression and explores how these ideas impact on dance as artistic practice.

Semester One Option - Arts Marketing (20 credits)
This module is for students looking to gain knowledge and understanding of current practices within arts marketing. It explores key marketing concepts and frameworks and examines how those are applied to specific cultural organisations. Students examine generic marketing principles and the particular problems facing those engaged in marketing the arts. A range of marketing tools for overcoming these issues are explored.

Semester One Option - Modernism and Postmodernism in Performance (20 credits)
This module explores intersections between the arts and theatre, ranging from the late nineteenth century to the present. Sessions examine innovations in performance, theatre, design, dance and live art, including the influences of philosophical, social and technological developments during this period.

Semester Two Option - Practice-led Research (20 credits)
This module reflects contemporary approaches to practice-led research in performance and introduces you to the intersection of academic and professional practice. With advice and guidance from module staff you develop a research proposal and pursue this through practical work either on your own or in small groups. Projects might focus on techniques for devising, the investigation of audience experience, site-specific performance or any other related subject where conducting practical research is the best way to pursue your research questions.

Semester Two Option - Staging Histories (20 credits)
This module explores the varied relationships between performance and history: the history in performance as well as the history of performance. It focuses on pre-20th century theatre, design, dance and performance, and concerns itself with historical texts that include scripts, photographs, drawings, models, designs, diaries, descriptions and criticisms. The aim is not to study historical texts as museum pieces, but to understand the use of these texts as sites of negotiation between different historical periods, including the contemporary.

Semester Two Option - Cultural Flashpoints in the Performing Arts (20 credits)
Through a series of case studies from across the performing arts disciplines; theatre, dance, music theatre, film, popular music you will explore how certain periods of time generated particular cultural shifts and examine how this relates to the social and political landscape from which they emerge. Case studies might include the performing arts and the rise of Fascism in the 1930s, new British Theatre in the 1950s, British New Wave Film in the 1960s, punk rock during the 1970s.

Elective Modules (20 Credits)
All PCI students have to take at least one of the options outlined above but may choose a 20 credit elective module from a range of possibilities offered through many departments across the University.

Level 3 Study

BA (Hons) Managing Performance

Level 3 Study - All Managing Performance Students take Strategic Arts Management, Contemporary Issues in the Cultural Industries and the Dissertation module.  You can choose between the Enterprise Project and the Performance Project according to the particular focus you wish to pursue in your personal practice.


Strategic Arts Management (20 credits)
This module enables students to gain an understanding of the process of strategy, and strategic thinking in arts and cultural organisations. It concentrates on the processes of strategic analysis, choice and implementation, using a range of theoretical models and applying them to a range of case studies.

Contemporary Issues in the Cultural Industries (20 credits)
This module looks at relevant cultural, social and economic theories to investigate public policies and funding models. Students study the shifting and evolving nature of performance and cultural industries labour markets, typical modes of professional practice, the role of networks, markets and public policies, the organisational characteristics of the performance and cultural industries and, the nature of risk in the creative market-place.

Dissertation (40 credits)
All students undertake an extended research project where you identify a research question and devise and carry out a strategy to address that question. The Dissertation demonstrates that you can work independently, conduct research and communicate the outcome through a coherent and well-structured piece of original writing. As well as the traditional format (a 10,000 - 12,000 word thesis) the dissertation can also include an element of field-work conducted within a short period of study in an industry context or an element of practice-led enquiry.

Performance Project (40 credits)
Students build on their experience of collaborative projects at previous levels and draw on specialist skills and understanding that have been developed in programme modules to create a large-scale public performance for stage@leeds. You are expected to work professionally and carry out specific roles in relation to your degree specialism. Activities might include; directing; writing; dramaturgy; management; marketing; voice, movement, and physical performance; dance; set and costume design; lighting, sound.

Enterprise Project (40 credits)
Working in small teams of their choice, students develop a project idea that the team implements. Projects are normally expected to happen outside the School or the University in collaboration with an external partner. They can be one-off events, creative projects, or the pilot for a wholly new venture that students intend to pursue after graduation. In this module, you integrate the theory and practical learning you’ve gained throughout your three years in the course and reflect on that learning in your assessments.

Year in Industry

What is the Year in Industry?
This is the opportunity to turn your three year degree into a four year degree, the BA Managing Performance(industry) by undertaking a work based placement  for the equivalent of an academic year.   
You will be able to apply the knowledge and skills you have gained through the first two years of your degree, and learn from high achieving professional individuals and organisations within the creative and cultural industries. 
Some posts will be waged whilst  others will provide a package including expenses and training.
Before and doing  your placement you will receive a great deal of support and training from the Careers Centre and the School of PCI, including pre-placement training, a workplace visit, and regular phone/email contact.  

What are the benefits of undertaking a Year in Industry?
It  is a unique opportunity to:

• test and expand  your personal , academic and professional   attributes;
• improve your CV and enhance your employability;
• experience the day-to-day running of a  business;
• have worked based learning supported by University expertise and recognised in your degree title.

Recent research in the University has shown that work placements have a positive impact on academic achievement in the final year. 

Where have our students worked?
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts, Newcastle (events)
Dancexchange Birmingham (Marketing)
Enterprise Rent-a-Car  (Management scheme)
Prysmian Cables Ltd (Marketing and Acquisitions)
National Dance Company of Wales (Marketing and Project Management)
Prince’s Trust (Fundraising)
St Nicholas’ Primary School Leeds
Vauxhall Motors (Marketing and Event Management)
Warner Bros  (Marketing)
West Yorkshire Theatre  Networks (Marketing and Events)

How do I find out more?
There is an introductory talk at the end of level one for all level one students.

During the autumn term of the academic year, there is an open lecture for all level two students.  This is followed by a series of structured workshops and tutorials run  across the year in collaboration with the University’s Careers Centre for those  who decide to enrol on the module. 

Whilst a fundamental element of this module is to equip students with the skills they need to find
their own placement, the School has also developed a database of company contacts. Individuals will have tutorials with the School Placements  Tutor to support their applications and preparation.

What is the assessment?
The year is a pass/fail and does not contribute to your degree classification.   To pass, you must successfully complete the placement itself and complete two takes on you return.  Firstly, you will submit a written assignment  and oral contribution in an appropriate form –  for example,  as a contribution to a taught module, as an input to an Open Day, as a pod cast for the School web site, as a case study for the Careers Centre website.  The assessment items will become invaluable elements of your  CV.

Click here for the Year in Industry module information

Study Abroad

As part of their studies, all PCI undergraduate students can opt to spend a year studying abroad in a partner institution.

Click here for more information on Study Abroad.

 

Graduate opportunities

In summary, BA (Hons) Managing Performance students will develop:

• Abilities in the theoretical interrogation and the practical realization of the practice of performance
• An analytical and reflective approach to their work
• Capability in working collaboratively with others
• An appreciation of the role of theatre and performance within contemporary society and culture
• Understanding of the structure, organisation and opportunities within the performance industries
• Capability in personal development planning and planning their own career options

Graduate opportunities


There are a wide range of opportunities in the cultural and creative industries, for example;

• Event management and production
• Arts management and administration
• Music management and promotion
• Advertising and Public Relations
• Venue and Festival Management
• Producing and Directing
• Community arts work
• Education
  
  

A significant number of graduates each year go on to further academic study.

The high-level generic and transferable skills our students develop also mean that they are suited to professional training in areas beyond the arts. A Leeds University degree is highly respected, with proven advantages for graduate employment.

Further academic study, Writing, Performing, Directing, Education, Events organisation , Arts administration, Community arts work. The high-level generic and transferable skills our students develop also mean that they are suited to professional training in areas beyond the arts including finance, law and business.