News & Events

Happy Anniversary Arts Entrepreneurship Initiative!

The Arts Extension Service is excited to celebrate five years of its Arts Entrepreneurship Initiative devoted to supporting the careers of working artists and providing students with opportunity locally, regionally, and nationally. The development of new programs happens for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes it is inspiration that propels a new service offering into being. Just such a conversation between two people from different creative disciplines gave rise to the Arts Entrepreneurship Initiative.

Maritime Exhibits: Alumna Emma Hodges and Mystic Seaport Museum

Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime museum, garnering an average of 284,000 visitors annually and inspiring “an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.” The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT and include a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities.

New Graduate Concentration in Nonprofit & Arts Management

The School of Public Policy (SPP) and the Arts Extension Service are offering a new concentration in nonprofit and arts management for students in SPP’s Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Policy and Administration programs.

Having Arts Management Skills in Your Back Pocket Pays Off!

Katherine Garland (right) poses with her co-worker Lyndsey Mackie outside the Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania office. Julie Queen

Inaugural Women in Arts Leadership Symposium a Success!

The Arts Extension Service held the first Women in Arts Leadership Symposium (WALS) on October 27th, 2018. Nearly one hundred arts professionals, five college students, and nationally recognized speakers gathered to crack open the conversation about what women recognize as the barriers to their leadership in the arts, and how these barriers can be mitigated and broken down.

Announcing "Community Engagement for Artists" Workshops this Fall

Are you an artist curious about creating public art or art for social change projects with your community? Join the UMass Arts Extension Service (AES) for a free, evening-long Community Engagement for Artists Workshop this fall (pre-registration required). Learn about the innovative community-engaged art projects happening nationwide, best practices, and the skills required to create an art project that engages your community.

My Smithsonian Internship: Furthering My Family Legacy

When asked what motivated me to pursue a degree in Arts Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an internship at Smithsonian Exhibits, my thoughts turn to my grandfather, Benedict J. Fernandez. A dyslexic Italian-Puerto Rican man from Harlem with no degree or a stable family to lean on while growing up, my grandfather became an icon of the arts and an inspiration to individuals around the globe, all because of his persistence.

Learning on Your Feet and in the Field

“The case studies are the best part of the Arts Extension Service courses! Having hands-on experience with an actual organization is incredibly helpful.” – AES Student

On any given day, Arts Extension Service students working with a case study organization may:

Greening Your Nonprofit Arts Organization: Doing Our Part to Address the Climate Crisis

I was a little kid when the first Earth Day launched and feeling responsible for protecting the planet was forever ingrained. As a result, there has always been a split between my personal desire to live lightly and preparing students to be arts managers in a field that is a significant consumer of power for buildings, travel, art creation, and programming.

Our Artist in Business training is on the move!

Thanks to Assets for Artists, AES recently completed a tour of our popular Artist in Business trainings throughout southern New England. For the second year in a row, the tour included training stops in Western Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with a second Connecticut location newly added this year.

Arts Extension Service