Creative Producing

During the MA Creative Producing course, you’ll build on your current experience and artistic vision, explore your creative ideas and judgement, and develop your entrepreneurial thinking.

We’ll equip you with the practical know-how to get your artistic ideas to an audience and sustain your practice. You’ll expand your professional knowledge, skills and networks in the following areas of creativity and business:

• Leadership of and collaboration with creative and technical teams
• Curation of artistic material
• Project and company management and planning
• Budgeting and finance management
• Fundraising and funding strategy
• Audience development
• Marketing.

You’ll also learn key cultural contexts that will enhance your critical thinking and broaden your understanding of the arts industry. This will enable you to:

• Reflect on your practice and develop your expertise
• Analyse current industry debates and policy
• Respond and engage with market trends and new legislation
• Formulate business strategies for your work, including innovation, planning and longevity.

Trimester one

The course begins by giving you a context of the cultural industry you’ll be preparing to enter, along with insights into its theoretical and practical landscape. You’ll gain core skills to enhance your academic practice. You’ll be given an overview of the economic and cultural landscape that a producer inhabits, allowing you to comprehend where you interact and engage with the industry. You’ll examine how the producer fits into a collaborative team, allowing you to reflect and explore your own professional identity and knowledge as a producer.

Trimester two

Trimester two gives you the collaborative model to explore your artistic ideas and begin planning for your own project or production. To underpin your preparation for the planning and delivery of your project or production, you’ll learn key skills that are essential for you - your "producer's toolkit" - a range of core elements that enables your creative and business practice as a producer.

Trimester three

The final trimester offers the framework for your independent work as a producer to be fully realised. You’ll embark on a major project of your choice to the completion of your MA.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document (below the main image on this page) for more details on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Research Methodologies and Context
• Professional Collaboration
• The Role of the Producer
• Production 2: Producing a Company
• Major Project

You’ll be assessed by a range of methods, including:

• Performance Project
• Proposal documents for funding, business plans, strategy or artistic ideas
• Research projects
• Presentations
• Viva voce
• Reflective learning and work-based reports or journals
• Project evaluations.

We combine academic study along with practical hands-on experience. Throughout the course, you’ll apply and develop your producing expertise.

You’ll learn through a range of methods, including:

• Lectures by academics and industry guests
• Workshops
• Work-based learning via productions and working with industry collaborators
• Seminars
• Online information and forums.

Your learning will be enhanced by one-to-one tutorials and personal supervision. You’ll also benefit from mentoring, peer support and collaborative learning.

In addition, you’ll glean industry expertise through attending industry events and guest talks.

The course is delivered by the University’s Creative Producer, Kerry Irvine. You’ll work on real-time creative projects for the University’s in-house production company, Bath Spa Productions. You’ll stimulate your creative ideas and extend your artistic community across a range of disciplines.

Develop and enhance your professional skills, knowledge and networks through the University’s industry partners, collaborators and guest speakers from the world heritage city of Bath and across the UK.

You’ll have the opportunity to work with a range of cultural organisations, such as Theatre Royal, Bath, Bristol Old Vic, The Holburne Museum and Bath Festivals, as well as theatres, companies and artists.

The course is geared towards giving you the skills you need to develop a freelance career as a Creative Producer.

You’ll also be able to diversify your work by developing skills in other areas. Through the course, you’ll gain transferable skills that are designed to equip you to work in a range of areas including:

• Event and cultural management
• Cultural leading and strategy
• Artistic direction or management
• Leisure and tourism industry
• Fundraising
• Audience development
• Marketing.

As a Creative Producing student you’ll be taught at Newton Park campus. You’ll benefit from access to:

• Commons building
• Newton Park library
• Our Virtual Learning Environment 
• Writing and Learning Centre
• English Language Unit.

Our Oldfield Park Theatre workshops are a new purpose-built facility in central Bath for Creative Producing students. These facilities include:

• Four rehearsal studios and Black Box performance space
• Breakout spaces and quiet study areas
• Lecture and seminar rooms
• 25-person IT suite
• Fully-equipped carpentry workshop and teaching space
• Fully-equipped costume making workshop
• Prop making workshops.

You’ll also have access to facilities on our other campuses, including:

• State-of-the art television studios - Newton Park
• University Theatre - Newton Park
• Burdall’s Yard - central Bath
• Additional teaching spaces at Culverhay.

As a Creative Producing student, you’ll be able to hire out equipment using SISO, Bath Spa University’s free equipment loan service.