University of Massachusetts Amherst. Arts Extension Service

The Arts Extension Service (AES), a national arts service organization located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation’s leading provider of professional arts management education, serving the arts through education, research, and publications. The AES distinguished itself as the first program in the nation to offer a bachelor’s degree in Arts Administration and it has subsequently added a range of training programs for state, regional and local arts agencies, including Peer Advising and Artist-in-Business, research services, and two online Certificates in Arts Management.

When founded in 1973 by Stanley Rosenberg, later the President of the State Senate, the AES was conceived of as an initiative in the tradition of the university’s land grant mission, extending the educational resources at UMass to stimulate cultural activity across the Commonwealth. Robert Gard’s Wisconsin Idea Theater provided important inspiration for Rosenberg, as a sort of modern-day successor to the Lyceum and Chautauqua adult education movements of the turn of the twentieth century. In Gard’s model, the state government and state university were partners in extending the opportunity for learning through the state. Like Gard, too, Rosenberg sought to build stronger communities through the formation of community arts councils. The groundwork laid by AES in its early years resulted in the creation of local cultural councils in nearly every community in the Commonwealth.

The AES continues to contribute as a significant partner in university outreach and community development, working to bridge artists, arts managers, and other professionals with best practices, the latest research, publications, and training programs. The central function of the AES remains its educational programming and award-winning courses and workshops for arts managers and artists — including its on-campus degree program and certificates in Arts Management — but it has become known as a resource for research in the arts, for its publications, and for matching emerging arts entrepreneurs with mentors or internships. Having launched into publishing as a means of supporting its workshops, the AES now has ten titles in print, ranging from the Fundamentals of Arts Management to the classic, Community Cultural Planning Handbook: A Guide for Community Leaders.

AES staff members are part of the larger College of Humanities and Fine Arts team — the size and nature of this staff varies according to funding and programming levels — while finances, personnel, and information technology are managed by staff in the Dean’s Office. Its funding comes primarily from revenues earned from teaching, consulting, publication sales, and grants.

The AES has a formal system of independent consultants, the AES Associates, who work as subcontractors on teaching, research, and consulting projects. They add skills, capacity, geographic balance, and racial diversity to the staff, and serve as advisors to other staff in planning, evaluation, and development. The Arts Extension Institute (AEI), a closely-related, independent, not-for-profit organization, raises funds for community arts development work. The AEI is governed by an independent board, which advises AES staff.