This interactive seminar style course explores foundational business and entrepreneurship principles, methods and tools used by creative professionals in a variety of settings. Students work alone and in teams to apply the practices needed to found and launch a creative business venture. From ideation to customer validation, branding and marketing to budget forecasting, operations and management, culminating in presenting their ideas to industry professionals. This is an excellent preparatory course to apply for MICA’s RCCE Just/Start Competition.

This is an introductory course in business and entrepreneurship. Students examine the main disciplines (accounting, finance, marketing, management, operations and entrepreneurship) within business and learn business terminology. The course introduces company, market and industry research and statistics to analyze new business ideas. The various types of entrepreneurship, business formation, ethics and social responsibility are discussed.

This seminar-style course explores the foundations of marketing, advertising and communications. Presenting the tools and methods used by professional artists and designers, students will develop cohesive written and visual communications relating to their own creative practice. Students will apply this content to complete sample proposals and applications for exhibitions, Calls to Artists, art markets and fairs, including MICA’s Art Market. Verbal presentation skills are covered to prepare students to interact with potential clients, patrons and customers. Students will have an opportunity to apply course content with external classroom clients. This course allows students to participate in MICA’s Art Market.

This seminar-style course delves into how artists and designers prepare applications and interact with potential patrons and customers at gallery openings, markets, and fairs, including participation in MICA’s Art Market. Students will reflect on their creative practice and work to develop cohesive written, visual, and verbal communications. They will apply these communication skills when completing sample applications for exhibition opportunities, art fairs, and MICA’s Art Market application. Additionally, students will receive feedback on the types of works they plan to sell, tips on pricing their offerings, coaching on booth setup, and strategies for building rapport with potential customers at their booth. This course presents essential Marketing strategies used by professional artists and designers.

Students work independently to produce creative items for sale in MICA’s Art Market. Building on ENTR 212, students will complete an intermediate level mini-course on creative business practices in preparation for MICA’s holiday market. This course covers pricing, marketing, and branding. All students are expected to engage with MICA Art Market for a minimum of one 10-hour day utilizing their skills acquired in this Entrepreneurship course.

Goals, ethics and values are expressed through numbers. After sharing an idea with a prospective client or collaborator, they often ask ‘how much will it cost?’ and ‘how long will it take?’ Your budget and timeline will tell them what you care about and the impact you want to make.This course provides the essential financial tools and methods used in creative, social, and community-based entrepreneurial projects. Students will strategically identify funding sources, develop a working knowledge of budgeting and financial reporting and write project proposals, draft grants, and develop crowdfunding campaigns. Students will have an opportunity to apply course content with external classroom clients.

Students work as an independent artist or designer producing items for retail sale at a pop-up shop or other sales ventures. Students apply creative entrepreneurial methods with a focus on creating multiples for sale. Topics include product development, financial and tax considerations, retail merchandising, marketing, and sales management. Strategic budgeting, branding, online marketing, sales tax, and site analytics are discussed.The course culminates with a real-world sales project to take place in the MICA store or in an e-commerce store. Students may consider this course as preparatory to participate in MICA’s Art Market, apply to MICA’s RCCE Just/Start Competition, or MICA’s RCCE Up/Start Competition.

Collaborating with clients is essential in the creative sector. This course presents both the theory and practice of creative collaboration on teams with external classroom clients. Students work on teams to become a faux creative agency. Students create Statements of Work (SOWs), Creative Briefs, and produce implementable solutions. This course project management tools used to research, plan, innovate, and track progress, while developing client deliverables from start to finish.

Taken the fall semester of students’ last year at MICA, this course provides an accelerator experience for students to learn and implement the business concepts needed to prepare the launch of an arts based business or social venture. Students work through a lean business model canvas to create a business plan. Topics include design thinking, market and customer research, financial modeling, validation and pitching. The capstone culminates with students participating in a pitch competition, Kickstarter campaign or similar experience to propel their business forward.

Leadership is essential to creating and managing teams, working with clients, and managing elements of creative projects or businesses. This course introduces students to methods of self-discovery that inform attentive and collaborative leaders. Students examine methods of leadership used while working on creative projects. Students will investigate how team dynamics and change management can be used to foster a positive and productive creative work environment.

This course prepares students to launch their creative careers and/or a creative venture. Building on prior C/ENTR courses, this course adds topics such as Futurism, Systems Thinking, Life Centered Design, and Sustainability. This course allows students the breadth to develop a formal plan to begin their creative careers. Some students may consider this course as preparatory to enter the MICA’s RCCE Up/Start Competition.