Master of Arts in Global Cultural and Creative Leadership

What does it take to shape culture, inspire change, and lead with vision in a rapidly evolving world? Creative leadership is the answer! It is the ability to imagine possibilities for the future, while responding intelligently to the realities of the present. This course examines how leaders in the arts and cultural sector bring together vision, creativity, practical wisdom, courage, and ethical responsibility to shape institutions and communities through cultural life.

Students will be encouraged and empowered to develop their own ideas for creative leadership while reflecting on the values, principles, and forms of judgement required to turn ideas into meaningful action.

A distinctive feature of the course is its mentorship-based approach. Through direct engagement with leading practitioners from Singapore and around the world, students will gain insight into the opportunities and challenges of leadership in real-world cultural environments. Case studies, field visits, discussions, internships, and one-to-one mentoring will provide opportunities to explore different models of leadership and to learn from the experience of renowned and respected cultural leaders.

By combining critical reflection with practical engagement, conceptual approaches with direct know-how, the course aims to cultivate vision, mission, action and direction coupled with a genuine sense of responsibility, preparing students to become leaders who shape the cultural life of their communities and of the wider society. Creativity is the way!

International cultural programmes do not emerge by accident or serendipity. Whether in an arts festival, an orchestra season, a theatre company’s repertory, this type of programming involves a series of decisions about artistic priorities, resources, audiences, and long-term purpose. This course examines how those decisions are made in order to generate great local and global impact, across publicly funded, independent and not-for-profit cultural organisations.

Focusing on major examples, the course introduces students to the concepts and practices that underpin international cultural programming in a variety of institutional settings. It explores how cultural organisations develop programmes that remain artistically ambitious while building lasting relationships with audiences and communities.

Drawing on case studies from across the cultural sector, students will consider different models of programming and the practical realities that shape them. The course provides an introduction to the planning, coordination, profitability, and strategic thinking involved in sustaining cultural organisations and enabling them to fulfil their artistic mission over time.

Cultural organisations depend not only on artistic excellence but also on their ability to connect with the people they hope to reach. This course explores how arts and cultural institutions communicate their purpose, build their public profile, and foster lasting relationships with audiences through brilliant marketing campaigns.

Focusing on the creative industries as live cultural ecosystems, the course introduces students to the principles of communication, promotion, and marketing in the arts. It examines how organisations identify and engage different audiences while remaining guided by a clear artistic mission. Along the way, students will consider what makes cultural audiences distinctive and how cultural organisations generate awareness, stimulate interest, cultivate relevance, and establish reputation in an increasingly crowded media landscape.

Through case studies, discussions, and practical exercises, students will analyse successful communication strategies and develop their own approaches to promoting arts and culture. Particular attention will be given to questions of audience development, effective branding, institutional identity, public trust, and the ethical responsibilities that accompany cultural marketing.

What is culture? What is cultural identity? Is there an essential relationship between culture and society? Are we living in an age of postmodernity, or does the notion of supermodernity better capture the realities of our increasingly digital private and public lives? Has globalisation irreversibly transformed our understanding of time and space? How can theories of culture remain relevant to everyday experience?

This course engages with these and related questions through examples drawn from literature, philosophy, architecture, music, theatre, performance art, sociology, history, and contemporary life. It introduces students to some of the central concepts and debates in cultural studies, while exploring a wide range of cultural phenomena and perspectives.

Throughout the course, students will develop the ability to engage critically with cultural ideas and practices, interpret cultural information thoughtfully, and broaden their intellectual horizons. Everyone interested in arts programming and creative leadership will gain a deeper understanding of the societies in which they live through valuable insights into the cultures that shape the contemporary world.

The success of great cultural projects rarely depends upon artistic vision alone. It involves resources, partnerships, and support networks that make ambitious ideas possible. This course introduces students to the strategies that arts and culture professionals use to build lasting relationships with public and private stakeholders, secure funding, and sustain creative initiatives.

Students will learn how cultural organisations – from performing arts companies and orchestras to interdisciplinary cultural centres, start-ups, and non-governmental organisations – develop and implement successful fundraising campaigns. The course focuses on both the practical and strategic dimensions of fundraising, providing students with the knowledge and skills required to prepare effective grant applications, sponsorship proposals, and fundraising plans.

A range of funding models will be examined, including government grants, corporate sponsorships, philanthropic giving, individual donations, and fundraising events. Through case studies and practical experiments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges associated with different sources of support, and learn how cultural organisations build the partnerships that enable creative projects to thrive.

Behind many successful cultural organisations lies a creative entrepreneurial idea: an individual or a small group identifying a need, spotting an opportunity, and finding a new way of turning vision into reality. This course explores how such initiatives take shape and what it takes to sustain them.

The course introduces students to the theory and practice of cultural entrepreneurship, examining the opportunities and constraints that characterise various creative ecologies. Students will learn how cultural projects are conceived, developed, and managed, while gaining insight into the policies, institutions, and economic realities that determine the destiny of any creative enterprise.

Through examples drawn from advertising, architecture, design, digital entertainment, music, publishing, media, and the performing arts, students will encounter a range of entrepreneurial approaches and organisational models. The course also provides an opportunity to develop original project ideas and to consider how creative ambition can translate into viable and lasting cultural ventures. /p>

Since the founding of both Edinburgh International Festival and the Avignon Festival in 1947, festivals have become some of the most vibrant expressions of cultural life, bringing together artists, ideas, and audiences from around the world. They create spaces where local traditions meet international energies, generating new conversations, collaborations, and forms of cultural exchange.

This course explores the history, theory, and practice of international festival management through a range of case studies drawn from different cultural contexts. Students will examine how festivals are conceived, organised, and sustained, while considering their artistic, social, cultural, and economic significance.

From small community-based initiatives to legendary events, the course looks at the many ways international festivals contribute to cultural life and shape the places in which they occur. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the needs and aspirations of their own communities and to imagine new festival models capable of bringing people, ideas, and creative inspirations together in meaningful ways through platforms for the “flowering of the human spirit”. Through the study of various types of successful festivals from around the world, students will gain insight into the principles, challenges, and possibilities of festival management in a fluid cultural landscape.

Cultural diplomacy is founded on the idea that culture can bring people together across borders, languages, and political differences. From artistic collaborations and educational exchanges to international festivals and institutional partnerships, it has long played an important role in relations between communities and countries.

This course explores the history, ideas, and practices of cultural diplomacy, examining how cultural connections are formed, nourished and sustained over time. Through historical examples and contemporary case studies, students will consider how individuals, organisations, and institutions use the arts, heritage, and education to build relationships and encourage dialogue beyond cultural boundaries.

Particular attention will be given to the role of interpersonal relationships and genuine connectivity, which remain as important as ever in the age of digital networking. The course invites students to think about culture not simply as a reflection of society, but as a means through which people, communities, and nations come to understand one another.

Ideas matter, but they matter most when they are communicated clearly and persuasively. This course explores the art of public communication and cultural advocacy, examining how individuals and organisations make compelling cases for the causes, projects, and values they seek to advance.

Students will develop their ability to communicate with confidence, engage different audiences, and present ideas effectively in any public setting. Alongside practical training in communication, the course considers the role of advocacy in supporting the arts and cultural sector, exploring how cultural initiatives gain visibility, attract support, and influence public conversations.

Through case studies, discussions, presentations, and collaborative exercises, students will analyse a range of communication strategies and advocacy campaigns. The course encourages them to develop their own voice, refine their persuasive skills, and think carefully about how ideas can be communicated in ways that are both authentic and effective. Designed as a series of interactive and discussion-based experiences, the course will provide opportunities to present arguments, develop advocacy proposals, and offer constructive feedback in an environment that values curiosity, dialogue, and the open exchange of ideas.

Cross-listed from our Master of Arts in Digital Humanities. How artificial intelligence is reshaping cultural landscapes, and what it is doing to traditions and practices that took centuries to form.

Cross-listed from our Master of Arts in Digital Humanities. How digital platforms shape communities, and how power online is distributed, contested and exercised.

Your year ends with something you made: an original proposal for a festival or live cultural event, complete with the concept, the research behind it, the plan for staging and publicising it, and a clear account of the impact and legacy you intend. It is the piece of work that defines you as a programmer and a leader, and the one you will put in front of an employer, a funder or a board.

It is for two kinds of people. If you have just finished a degree — in any subject — and you want to build a career in festivals, performing arts, cinema, cultural agencies or creative business, this gives you the vocabulary and the network to start well. If you are already in the sector and the next step is leadership, this gives you the strategic, financial and policy grounding that step demands.

What we look for is not a background in the arts. It is a real interest in live cultural events and the seriousness to work on what makes them thrive.

An arts management degree teaches you to run an institution well. This one also asks what the institution is for, who it should serve, and how its work ought to change — and it treats international live events, festivals above all, as the main field rather than a specialism.

We checked twenty-two comparable degrees across five regions: none of them integrates programming and leadership into the same curriculum in quite the same way.

SkillsFuture Credit. SkillsFuture Credit can be used for this programme. See the SkillsFuture Credit website for details.

SkillsFuture Fellowships. The Fellowships are for Singapore Citizens with at least 10 years of working experience in the same or a related industry or job function. The award is worth S$10,000; eligibility, terms and conditions are available at skillsfuture.gov.sg/fellowships.

CoHASS is Asia's leading home for humanities, arts and social sciences, ranked in the global top 50 in 11 subjects, with four cross-college research initiatives running: Digital Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; Health, Culture and Society; Arts, Culture, and Environmental Change; and Global Asia. You will be taught by people doing that work.

The programme draws on expertise from across the College:

• School of Art, Design and Media
• School of Humanities
• School of Social Sciences
• Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
• NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
• Nanyang Centre for Performing Arts

And Singapore itself is part of the education — a city where several cultural worlds live side by side, with an active festival calendar and direct lines into the cultural sectors of Southeast Asia, China and India.

Small groups, a lot of applied discussions, and work that leaves the classroom. Seminars, case studies, field visits, workshops and group projects, with peer critique built in. Placements and internships too! There are no final examinations — you are assessed continuously through assignments, essays, presentations and projects, so what you finish the year with is a body of work and a portfolio of activities rather than a transcript.

Yes. Many of our applicants are already in the sector, and the part-time route spreads the same coursework across two years. Your final project can draw on the work you are doing now, where your supervisor agrees it meets the requirements.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and may be assessed in batches through the admissions cycle. You may be contacted for more information, receive status updates, or be notified of the outcome as your application moves through review. Shortlisted applicants are invited to an interview, in person or online.

Review and notification usually take between two and four months, depending on when you applied and how many applications we are working through. Apply as early as you reasonably can. You can check your status any time at the application portal.