Master of Arts in Creative Leadership Mission and Outcomes | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Master of Arts in Creative Leadership Mission and Outcomes

The MA Creative Leadership is designed to support those who want to bring about change within nonprofits, businesses, social enterprises, or government agencies. With a focus on forward-looking organizational practices, the program is designed to support leaders in a wide range of industries to collaborate across differences and build solidarity around a shared purpose. The curriculum prepares individuals at any stage of their career for a future where leadership is networked, collective, relational, and transformative.

It combines: (1) methods and practices of artists and designers, (2) natural world models and eco-consciousness, (3) decentralized management and decision-making processes, and (4) frameworks and tools for advancing change while centering care for both people and planet

  • Apply the structures, principles, and practices of non-hierarchical, decentralized, and agile networks, organizations, and teams.
  • Incorporate the practices of artists and designers into the processes of collaboration across difference, undertaking transformational change, and imagining and making new worlds.
  • Apply (eco)systems understanding to analyze interdependencies between environmental, social, and economic forces and to design regenerative organizations, or other systems.
  • Exercise relational leadership, conversational receptiveness, and cultural competence in interpersonal interactions and effectively foster an inclusive and caring workplace..
  • Engage storytelling, coaching, facilitation, and listening skills to connect authentically with others, catalyze change, and promote community building and social healing.
  • Advance values-led change at the level of self/career, organization/team, or system/community; identify areas of strength and of growth in one’s practice of creative leadership to develop a personal leadership plan with a manifesto.