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Amid a surge in arts activism and engagement, this intensive course explores how creativity can tackle urgent issues from social justice and community cohesion to ethical leadership and fake news.

Over eight sessions, expert guest speakers dig deep into aspects of creative leadership enriched through personal experience. From a prison project igniting social justice across the US to a UK national museum confronting global warfare, these speakers reveal how creativity can transform any aspect of our world.

Live discussions are mediated by Course Director Leo Crane. Students are encouraged to participate in a Q&A with each speaker, before exploring the issues raised in structured group work. By the end of the course, students will have investigated topics from cultural entrepreneurship and crisis management to community engagement and arts activism. They will have reflected on their own leadership style and grasped their potential.

This Intensive Course consists of live-streamed lectures and discussions. Recordings of the live sessions are accessible anytime during the course via our online learning platform, Canvas.

Students will learn:

  • Socially responsive arts activism
  • The value of community-led engagement
  • The complexities of transforming museums
  • Ethical leadership and crisis management
  • How to craft a case for support
  • Applying creative thinking and self-reflection
The Details
  • Course Dates & Fees

    Course Dates & Fees

    April 7 - 16, 2021
    5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. GMT
    (12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT)
    Week 1: Wed-Fri
    Week 2: Mon-Fri
    Course Fee: £795.00 
    All online Intensive Courses are developed in London by Sotheby's Institute faculty, programming staff, and industry experts.
  • How It Works

    How It Works

    Our online Intensive Courses are designed to enrich and deepen your understanding of a specific art world subject in an accelerated and dynamic format. The courses are ideal for undergraduates, career changers, art professionals, and art lovers seeking to learn more about art and cultural history or to acquire specific knowledge/skills.
    Led by art professionals drawn from our global faculty, these courses provide participants with expert insight and practical skills through a combination of livestreamed lectures and group discussion. Course materials and lecture recordings can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via Sotheby’s Institute’s learning platform – Canvas. Canvas is an intuitive, self-contained environment that requires no additional software.
    Once you successfully complete the course, you will receive a verified Certificate of Completion from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Our digital certificates allow you to share new skills with various social media platforms, including LinkedIn.
  • Who Is This Course For?

    Who Is This Course For?

    This course is suitable for all levels. This course is particularly for you if you are an arts professional seeking a new perspective on your work or considering the next move in your career.
  • Key Skills

    Key Skills

    Participants in this course will develop skills in the following areas:

    • Persuasion*

    • Creativity*

    • Collaborative leadership

    • Crisis management

    • Community-led programming


    * Featured in LinkedIn's Top 5 Soft Skills most demanded by employers in 2020 (Creativty #1; Persuasion #2).
  • Sample Topics

    Sample Topics

    Topics and guest speakers in this course may include:

    • The Power and Place of the Arts in Social Justice (Sabra Williams BEM, Co-Founder, Creative Acts)

    • Transforming Museums with Purpose (Rhian Harris, Chief Executive, Lakeland Arts)

    • Public Opinion and Crisis Management
      (Gill Webber, Executive Director, IWM Institute, Imperial War Museum)

    • Chronicling our Times through Rapid Response Mass Participation (Thomas Croft, Portraits for NHS Heroes)

  • Faculty

    Faculty

    Leo Crane (Course Leader, Online Summer Intensives) is a seasoned arts professional with particular expertise in fundraising and communications. He has over twenty years’ experience with some of the world’s greatest cultural organizations, including the V&A, British Library, Smithsonian Institution, Royal Institute of British Architects and Dulwich Picture Gallery. His work has taken him across the world, brokering bilateral relationships with China, India, Russia, the Middle East and the USA. As a consultant, he helps organizations define and articulate their vision to potential funders, creating strategies, implementing work plans and leading masterclasses. Alongside this, he has his own practice as an animator, painter and co-founder of creative studio Figuration. He holds an MA (Hons) from Oxford University and an MA (Distinction) from Bournemouth University.
  • Register

    Register

    Click here to register.


    This course is listed under the Intensive Course option in the online application. Online Intensive Courses are open to anyone 18 years of age and older. Registration takes approximately 5 minutes to complete.
    View Terms and Conditions
    Questions? Contact us at online@sia.edu.