Capilano University helps culture lovers become arts and entertainment managers

Capilano University arts and entertainment management instructor Christy Goerzen will never forget when one particular cultural event changed her life.

She was 14 years old, standing in front of the stage at the Mission Folk Festival, when she experienced a transcendent musical experience. It came courtesy of the klezmer-infused sounds of a Jewish group called Tzimmes.

“That was really an ultimate moment for me of just being transported to this other place when I was just a kid from Maple Ridge,” Goerzen told the Georgia Straight by phone from her office. “I just knew that I wanted to live a life in the arts. I just knew.”

It wasn’t until she was completing a bachelor’s degree in English literature that she figured out how to do this. She came across an ad in the Straight for the certificate program in advanced arts and entertainment management at what is now Capilano University.

“So I enrolled in the program right after I finished my bachelor’s degree,” she said, “and I have worked in arts and entertainment administration—and now teaching—for almost 20 years.”

The one-year advanced certificate program helps students gain an overview of all aspects of arts and entertainment management, as well as practicum experience. Applicants must have two years of postsecondary experience; the next intake of students is in early May, with an application deadline of April 7.

In the first term, students take advanced 300-level courses in media relations, marketing, and promotions; organizational structures; financial management; resource development; fundamentals of artist development; and production and tour management.

Goerzen said that, generally, students come from three broad areas.

There are those who are passionate about the arts and want to learn how to support this area administratively. That sometimes includes people who have been in acting or directing programs or who have attended the Vancouver Film School, which offers a pathway into the program.

Then there are artists who would like to learn how to manage their own careers, including understanding how to apply for grants. And then there are those with an entrepreneurial spirit.

“We get a lot of musicians who are looking to perhaps build their singer-songwriter career and learn how to manage themselves,” Goerzen revealed.

Practicums are tailored to suit the student’s passion. People have been placed at large agencies, record labels, major festivals, theatre companies, and classical-music organizations.

“We’re always developing new practicum placements and bringing on new organizations,” Goerzen said. “It’s ever-growing.”

The chair of the arts and management program is Jennifer Nesselroad, who’s also chair of Capilano University’s school of performing arts.

There’s also a two-year arts and entertainment management diploma program, which will accept its next group of students in September. According to Goerzen, it’s more aimed at people who are coming out of high school or who don’t have the type of experience that would qualify them for the one-year advanced certificate program.

The diploma students do front-of-house work at the Blueshore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University’s main campus.

“The course work starts more entry-level and gets more advanced in the second year,” Goerzen said. “The students also do their two practicum placements, just like they do in the certificate program, but these don’t come until the second year.”