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The Arts and Creative Enterprise (ACE) Program is the central hub for events and programming in the arts and creative industries, including the visual and performing arts, media and entertainment, and design at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. From speaker series and hands-on workshops to networking opportunities with sector leaders, the program provides students and professionals alike with a dynamic platform for engagement and learning.

With the arts as an entry point, the ACE Program helps build the creativity, innovation, collaboration, and critical thinking skills necessary to lead and manage in today鈥檚 complex business and civic landscapes.

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About the Arts and Creative Enterprise Program

The ACE Program leverages Chicago Booth鈥檚 faculty and the vibrancy of Chicago鈥檚 art scene, plus a global network of experts, to curate offerings in three areas:

  • Creativity and Innovation Theory and Practice
  • Management and Economics in the Not-For-Profit Arts Sector
  • Management and Economics in the For-Profit Creative Industries

ACE Program offerings are designed to serve those who aspire to a career in the arts and creative fields as well as those seeking to expand their artistic horizons and creative capabilities.
 
Drawing upon examples from museums and concert halls to film companies and media streaming platforms, the ACE Program highlights the power of visionary leadership and interdisciplinary management practices to build organizations whose survival depends upon continuous innovation. Through active engagement with the arts and creative enterprises, students hone business skills that are valuable in all professional endeavors.

About the Arts and Creative Enterprise Program
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Why Now? Why Booth?

Through the Booth art collection, housed across our global campuses, we demonstrate every day that art is central to the school’s culture and ethos. The artworks in the collection are distinctive not just for their aesthetic value but for the breadth of their perspectives. The collection boasts art that grapples with the issues of our day in bold and meaningful ways, and invites debate—just as we do in our curriculum.

Booth is also home to several courses incorporating arts and creativity into management education. The  and  courses were developed and are taught by Mary Ittelson, adjunct assistant professor of strategy, and faculty advisor to the ACE Program. Her courses challenge students to develop their own perspectives on the ways in which commerce, creativity, and culture can align and collide in the leadership of arts organizations, as well as honing their creative and critical thinking for exemplary leadership in any sector.

Amidst rapid technological, economic, and cultural shifts, we need leaders with the imagination and creativity of artists as well as with the strategic management training that Booth offers its students. The ACE Program, with its dual focus on art and business, will allow the school to cultivate leaders who possess the creativity, resilience, and courage to forge new paths of impact and meaning.

Why Now? Why Booth?
Mary Ittelson teaching

"We are all born creative. Often we have it educated out of us and have to work to rediscover it. Creativity is essential not just to a successful career and a growing economy, but also to thriving in general, and to a life well-lived."

— Mary Ittelson, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Strategy and instructor of the Art + Business Lab course at Chicago Booth

Arts and Creative Enterprise Leadership

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Alex Imas

Faculty Advisory Committee
Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and Vasilou Faculty Scholar 

Alex Imas
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Rob Gertner

Faculty Advisory Committee
Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Strategy and Finance; John Edwardson Faculty Director Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation 

Rob Gertner

Arts and Creative Enterprise Courses

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