PROGRAMME LEADERSHIP: Creative Arts Leadership MA

• The MA comprises core units of Curating Change (on inclusive leadership, which focuses on elements like kindness and neurodiversity by atypical leaders), Business as Unusual (on Personal and Global Leadership), Social, Ethical & Environmental Enterprise for Leaders.
• Learners will customise their own bespoke programme of learning — and define/refine skills and knowledge required for their own definition of ‘leadership’ — with the interdisciplinary Optional units such as on Business Simulation: Creativity to Launch (from the Department of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability) and Global Digital Society (from the Department of Sociology)
• Last but not last, over summer, learners will synthesise their own learning through a 60-credit Synthesis Project entitled ‘My Leadership’.

• The Manchester Metropolitan University Business School is among best in the world after retaining triple accreditation status in 2023. With rigorous assessment criteria, the highly prized triple accreditation sets the international benchmark of excellence and puts the Business School into a select group globally.
• The accreditations are:
  • EQUIS, based in the EU: This refers to EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) Quality Improvement System. First awarded in 2019, the EQUIS accreditation benchmarks the Business School against international standards for education, research ethics, responsibility and sustainability and engagement with practice. Just 209 schools worldwide currently hold the prestigious EQUIS award.
  • AACSB, based in the US: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business connects business schools, industry, nonprofits, and government to drive positive societal change in the world.
  • AMBA, based in the UK: The Association of MBAs awards MBA Accreditation to maintain standards and foster innovation in global postgraduate management education.

• Related to the MA, I have designed and will lead a different but related short course as part of the Office for Students Pilot Programme entitled Creative Leadership, from 07/2023.
• I have been invited by Manchester Met’s award-winning RISE (winner of Guardian University Award for best Course Design, Retention and Student Outcomes 2020) to lead this unit.
• Pitched at Level 4 (equivalent to first year of undergraduate), the 6-week Creative Leadership short course targets nurses, care home and NHS staff.
• This is part of Manchester Met’s project as one of 22 institutions to deliver the OfS’ Lifelong Learning Entitlement (2025), a cornerstone of the government’s Education White Paper.

As an experienced academic developer and innovator, I have, over the past 2.5 years, developed a number of proposals and iterations related to this MA. I very much welcome collaborators to realise these. Examples include:

• Executive version akin to an MBA in the arts, modelled after the Ivy League executive leadership courses albeit with socially-engaged agenda and fee-system (below)
• Creative, radical funding schemes, bursaries and multi-tiered system, such as full fee-paying students subsidizing free spaces for marginalised students all of whom will learn side-by-side
• Online delivery ala a turbocharged Netflix-meets-Futurelearn, with low residency during summer with a Davos with Conscience Summer Summit (see next point)
• Summer Summit: High-level, high-profile but socially-engaged, tech-for-good focused and equitable equivalent of Davos that will welcome startups, Dalai Lama, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang and artivists Ruangrupa (whom I first worked with in 2006) alike. Also open to fee-paying public, which will fully-subsidise those from local / disadvantaged communities.
• Hybrid/hyflex versions; block teaching.

• The course exemplifies EDI in multiple ways – not just in terms of subject matter but its structure and approach.
• I held extensive discussions with the Faculty Finance to successfully advocate for provisions for disabled and disadvantaged staff and students to be built in (structural change), rather than on a case-by-case basis (onus on the individual).
• The beautiful, bespoke family of audio-visual assets associated with the course have been specially-designed by emerging artist Zineb Berrais. While an alumni (MMU Animation 2018) and newly-crowned postgraduate (Salford 2022 Distinction), I successfully advocated for the artist to be paid professional rates for this work. I am art directing Zineb and working closely with MMU Marketing.
• This work draws on my previous successful collaborations with Zineb. This includes designing the powerful logo for the 75th Anniversary of the 5th Pan African Congress Celebrations for Black History Month 2020 PAC75 which reached 18.2 million people worldwide, as well as creating animations for my commissioned film that played on BBC iPlayer How to Thrive in 2050 (Tan 2021).

• PROGRAMME TITLE: MA Creative Arts Leadership.
• FACULTY: Arts and Humanities.
• DEPARTMENT: Art & Performance.
• UNIVERSITY: Manchester Metropolitan University.
• HECOS CODES (Higher Education Classification of Subjects): 101361, 10088
• FINAL LEVEL OF STUDIES: Level 7
• STUDY MODE: 12 months, Full Time
• COHORT: September.
• FEE BAND: Standard Postgraduate Taught Lab/Studio fee, Standard Postgraduate Taught Overseas Lab/Studio fee
• QAA SUBJECT BENCHMARK STATEMENT: Master’s Degree Characteristics Statement. Relevant QAA subject benchmark statement in Art and Design (2019) and MMU FHEQ Level 7 Standard Descriptors have been referenced to inform the design of the programme.
• LEARNING & TEACHING DELIVERY: Level 7; Scheduled learning: 25%; Independent Learning: 75%; Placement: 0%
• ASSESSMENT METHODS: Coursework: 100%. Examinations: 0%
• FINAL AWARD TITLE: MA Creative Arts Leadership
• EXIT AWARD TITLES: PGCert Creative Arts Leadership; PGDip Creative Arts Leadership
• PROGRAMME OUTCOMES: Part A – Knowledge and Critical Understanding: By the end of the programme students are expected to have knowledge and critical understanding of:
• Part B – Skills and Attributes: The programme will ensure students will gain the following skills and attributes:
  • LO 7) Apply various methods to collect, analyse and synthesise data
  • LO 8) Forecasting and contextual awareness
  • LO 9) Use and apply empathy, critical reflection, creative thinking
  • LO 10) Implement innovative approaches to approach real world problems
  • LO 11) Clearly articulate complex ideas using a range of media
  • LO 12) Project management, co-creation, and leadership skills
• Business as Unusual: Personal and Global Leadership (30 credits) (delivered by Department of People and Performance): How can existing approaches in leadership inform how we can lead the future? This unit explores current and future thinking in leadership through a critical lens to understand how we can manage organisational change. We will inquire into the importance of leading ourselves and building self-awareness in dynamic organisational environments through topics such as reflexivity, values-based leadership, and power dynamics, in the context of working towards strategic common objectives such as transformation, innovation, inclusion and sustainability in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), international context.
• Curating Change: Inclusive Leadership (30 credits) (delivered by Department of Art & Performance): How can curatorial and creative practice and research help us develop more inclusive models of leadership? We ‘curate’ art exhibitions and social media posts but forget that ‘curation’ refers to healing and guidance, and that guidance is the old English origin of the term ‘leadership’. Celebrating how the ‘creative arts’ encompasses a diverse range of definitions, approaches, media, practices, and interventions, this unit sets the stage for the MA. This unit sets the stage for the MA. Atypical change-makers and thought-leaders from and beyond the creative arts will lead ‘masterclasses’ that dismantle the ‘master’ narratives of how we understand and practise ‘leadership’. Through inclusive frameworks focusing on anti-racism, neurodiversity, kindness, transgender-rights and more, we will learn about the building blocks towards what ‘creative arts leadership’ can be for the self, community, and institution.
• Social, Ethical & Environmental Enterprise for Leaders (15 credits)(delivered by Department of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability): This unit studies the transformational changes required to address the global challenges across the world today. Students will gain a critical appreciation of social, ethical & environmental challenges facing the enterprise for a better future
• Synthesis Project: My Leadership (60 credits) (delivered by multidisciplinary team, with tutors from different Faculties): How have the skills, knowledges and questions that we have assembled altered our own understanding and practice of ‘leadership’? Students will synthesise their learning and outline their own model of leadership and its potential applications by proposing, organising and delivering professional practice or an independent project.
  • Professional practice: This may include internships, practice, research, or other negotiated professional engagement with an external partner (individuals, community or organisation) in the UK or internationally. The professional link will be initiated by the student with the support of the unit tutor. The research question, content, and individual or group planned engagement will determine the curriculum, supported by tutorials.
  • Project: Students will propose, research, realise, publish and disseminate a project for a public audience. Outputs may include an exhibition (as artist and/or curator), research paper, portfolio of creative and critical work articulating the investigation of a practical or conceptual issue, or an intervention for self, community or organisation.
• Optional Units (45 credits total): What are other skills, knowledges and issues within and beyond the arts, humanities, business and law, that can widen or deepen our inquiry? Apart from the Core Units, students will select from offers by other courses and disciplines throughout the University, to further customise and develop their own leadership toolkits.
• Additionally: Students can further enrich their learnings by participating in the uncredited courses from the Research Training Programme from Postgraduate Arts & Humanities Centre (PAHC). Led by experts from diverse backgrounds across the arts and humanities faculty, the wide-ranging courses provide research skills and knowledge that are theoretical, critical, practice-based, artistic, qualitative and quantitative, underpinned by collegiality; equality; reflexivity and practice. These courses do not contribute to the conferment of an award/degree classification and are purely for enrichment purposes only.

Personal Tutoring (PT) will be an important aspect of the MA Creative Arts Leadership. As a programme that creatively interrogates leadership and build students’ capacity to define their own leadership, students will take a proactive, (co-)creative approach to the PT programme.

• Delivered by Department of Art & Performance, Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
• OVERVIEW: How can curatorial and creative practice and research help us develop more inclusive models of leadership? We ‘curate’ art exhibitions and social media posts but forget that ‘curation’ refers to healing and guidance, and that guidance is the old English origin of the term ‘leadership’. Celebrating how the ‘creative arts’ encompasses a diverse range of definitions, approaches, media, practices, and interventions, this unit sets the stage for the MA. Atypical change-makers and thought-leaders from and beyond the creative arts will lead ‘masterclasses’ that dismantle the ‘master’ narratives of how we understand and practise ‘leadership’. Through inclusive frameworks focusing on anti-racism, neurodiversity, kindness, transgender-rights and more, we will learn about the building blocks towards what ‘creative arts leadership’ can be for the self, community, and institution.
• Through conversations with some of the most artful, agile and atypical change-makers, thought-leaders and collectives from and beyond the creative arts, students interrogate normative constructs of ‘leadership’, and begin to (re-)imagine new, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion-centred approaches to thinking, making, organising, how we relate to one another, to drive positive change. This flagship lecture series is in the form of a high-quality public-facing ‘talk-show’ taking place on location in Manchester and beyond, including at unusual sites. 
• INDICATIVE CONTENT: Apart from being audiences, students will also learn by co-curating components of the unit, with corresponding training provided as required, such as:
  • Co-chairing discussions
  • Co-producing events       
  • Co-designing sections on website
  • Crafting op-eds and provocations on the unit’s social media platforms.
• LEARNING OUTCOMES: On successful completion of this Course Unit students will be able to:
  • 1) Evaluate curatorial and creative arts practice and research in relation to healing, guidance and leadership
  • 2) Reflect on the value of anti-racism, neurodiversity, kindness, transgender-rights and more in diverse contexts, and in relation to your understanding and practice of leadership on personal, community and/or organisational level.
  • 3) Critically appraise radical, real-world approaches to thinking, making, organising, and how we relate with one another to drive change, vis-à-vis dominant models of ‘leadership’
  • 4) Develop ideas and methods to begin curating ‘creative arts leadership’ for the self, community, and/or organisation
• SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
  • PORTFOLIO (60%): The output is in the form of two posts on unit website, extended Twitter and/or Instagram posts on the unit’s social media platforms, with reference to related literature and/or practice, to critically reflect on specific contents of Masterclass.  The post should be <800 words each, or equivalent with diagram, video, podcast, and so on.
  • PRACTICAL ACTIVITY (40%): Co-curation of Masterclasses and active engagement, for example co-chairing discussion; co-producing an event. Students will evidence and document their engagement in a report (<800 words or equivalent such as flow-chart) with links and screen-shots.
• ESSENTIAL LEARNING RESOURCES:
  • Our bases of curating masterclasses that dismantle the ‘master’ narratives of how we understand and practise ‘leadership’:
  • Lorde, A. (1984) ‘Poetry is not a luxury’, in. Crossing Press, pp. 36–39, and and ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’, pp. 110-114. PDFs available here and here respectively.
  • Books: Selected sections from:  
  • Gheerawo, Rama. 2022. Creative Leadership: Born from Design. Lund Humphries
  • Henley, Darren. 2018. Creativity: Why It Matters. Elliott & Thompson.
  • Singh, Julietta. 2017. Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements. Illustrated edition. Durham: Duke University Press Books.
  • More:
  • Instagram: Follow and study dyslexic lawyer-turned-artist Dr Jack Tan’s Instagram, where every post is a masterclass on social justice
  • Website: Discuss what/why/how/what next of Indonesian collective Ruangrupa’s artistic direction of documenta 15 https://documenta-fifteen.de/ including how the website is curated 
  • YouTube Channel: The 5th Pan African Congress 75th Anniversary Celebrations: Viewing the Past and Looking to the Future. 2020 https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC8f7ic4fO4UnoqLiLFuolfw
  • Additional materials will be indicated via the unit Moodle area.
• FURTHER RESOURCES:
  • Books: Sections from:
  • hooks, bell. 2001. All about Love: New Visions. Harper Perennial.
  • The Care Collective. 2020. Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. Verso Books.
  • Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah. 2019. Postcolonial Banter. Verve Poetry Press.
  • Steyerl, Hito. 2017. Duty Free Art. Verso London.
  • Dhital, R and Tan, Kai Syng. 2023. A Handbook of Neurodiversity and Creative Research. Routledge 
  • Articles:
  • Austin, Robert D., and Gary P. Pisano. 2017. ‘Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage’. Harvard Business Review, 1 May 2017. https://hbr.org/2017/05/neurodiversity-as-a-competitive-advantage
  • Patti, Itali. 2017. ‘Could Creativity Drive the next Industrial Revolution?’ World Economic Forum. 19 April 2017. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/why-creativity-will-drive-the-next- industrial-revolution/.
  • Tan, Kai Syng. 2020. ‘Novel Viruses Require Artful Solutions’. Royal Society of the Arts Blog (blog). 26 May 2020. https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa- comment/2020/05/novel-viruses-require-artful-solutions
  • Websites:
  • All the Queen’s Men (ATQM) Powerful transdisciplinary socially-engaged collective led by award-winning artist Tristan Meecham in Melbourne, Australia and beyond. Queer, exuberant, compassionate, decolonised, inter-generational and cross-cultural, programmes include mass street dancing and 6-hour marathon running, afternoon dance with LGBTQIA+ elders and more.
  • Wee, Cecilia, and James Leadbitter. 2020. ‘With For About 2020 – A Slow Conference for a Fast Evolving Crisis’. 2020. http://www.withforabout.com/.
  • Additional materials will be indicated via the unit Moodle area.
• ICTS RESOURCES:
  • Website and social media platforms linked to Moodle, MIRO, Padlet and more, as detailed.
  • Accessibility functions and provisions as detailed
  • Hybrid teaching support via Owl technology and MS Teams/zoom
  • Live Streaming via zoom and MS Teams

• Delivered by Department of People and Performance, Faculty of Business and Law.
• OVERVIEW: How can existing approaches in leadership inform how we can lead the future? This unit explores current and future thinking in leadership through a critical lens to understand how we can manage organisational change. We will inquire into the importance of leading ourselves and building self-awareness in dynamic organisational environments through topics such as reflexivity, values-based leadership, and power dynamics, in the context of working towards strategic common objectives such as transformation, innovation, inclusion and sustainability in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous), international context.
• INDICATIVE CONTENT: Leadership is explored through a critical lens to facilitate reflexivity in a global VUCA world and conceptualise leadership practice as a form of ‘Business as (un)usual’. We draw on relevant theories and current thinking from debates such as responsible leadership, ethical leadership, relational leadership, and inclusion to explore values, ethics, complexity, power, and agency in leadership practice to inform and shape ethical transformation, self-development, and future thinking. This will include focused topics, such as:
  • Responsible Leadership for ethical transformation
  • Developing Reflective Practice (reflexivity, self-awareness, and learning)
  • Values, ethics, and morality in leadership practice
  • Power dynamics in a leadership context
• LEARNING OUTCOMES:
  • 1) Evaluate current and emerging leadership theory/thinking and their significance for unpredictable (VUCA) contexts
  • 2) Create and articulate own conceptualisation of leadership in an unpredictable (VUCA) world
  • 3) Reflect on the importance of values, ethics and power in leadership practice and their influence on self-development and ethical transformation
  • 4) Draw on relevant reflective strategies to evaluate and plan for personal leadership development in the context of a VUCA world
• SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: PORTFOLIO (100%): Students will be required to submit a portfolio which may include, (but is not limited to) a; digital poster, reflective essay and a presentation. This will be equivalent to 4000 words
• ESSENTIAL LEARNING RESOURCES:
  • Alvesson, M., Blom, M. and Sveningsson, S. (2017) ‘Leadership: The need for a reflective approach’ In Alvesson, M., Blom, M. and Sveningsson, S. (Eds.) Reflexive Leadership, Organising in an imperfect world. London: Sage, pp. 1-12. (Digitised version of chapter available via library)
  • Bolden, R. Witzel, M and Linacre, N. (2016) Leadership paradoxes: re-thinking leadership for an uncertain world. London: Routledge. (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2019). Organizational behaviour. London: Pearson. (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle).
  • Cunliffe, A.L. (2016) ‘Republication of “On Becoming a Critically Reflexive Practitioner’, Journal of Management Education, 40(6) pp. 747-768
  • Pless, N.M. and Maak, T. (2022) Responsible Leadership. 2^nd ed. London: Routledge.
  • Pless, N.M., Sengupta, A., Wheeler, M.A., and Maak, T. (2021) ‘Responsible Leadership and the Reflective CEO: Resolving Stakeholder Conflict by Imagining What Could be done.’ Journal of Business Ethics, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04865-6
  • Osland, J., Mendenhall, M.E., Reiche, S., and Szkudlarek, B. (Eds.) (2020) Advances in Global Leadership Volume 13. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Ltd
  • Western, S. (2019). Leadership: A Critical Text. 3rd ed. London: Sage (Digitised version of earlier 2013 2^nd edition available via library – selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Yukl, G. A. and Gardner III, W. L. (2020) Leadership in Organizations. 9th ed. Essex, England: Pearson Education Ltd (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Additional materials, articles and resources will be indicated via the unit Moodle area
• FURTHER RESOURCES:
  • Bolden, R., Hawkins, B., Gosling, J., and Taylor, S. (2011) Exploring Leadership: Individual, Organizational, Societal Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. (Digitised version available via library – selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Eckersall, P., and Grehan, H. (Eds.) (2019) The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics. London: Routledge (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Hoyle, S., Hewlett, L.J., Talbott, A., Hogarth, R. and Wilkinson, B. (2018) Changing cultures: Transforming leadership in the arts, museums and libraries. Kings College London: Arts Council England [online] [Accessed 03 August 2022] https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/ChangingCulturesKCLACE.pdf
  • Humphrey, R.H., Ashkanasy, N.M., and Troth, A.C. (Eds.) (2022) Emotions and Negativity (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 17). Bingley, UK: Emerald publishing Ltd
  • Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donelly, R., Kynighou, A., (2020) Human Resource Management at work. 7th ed., CIPD: London, UK. (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle).
  • Nisbett, M. and Walmsley, B. (2016) ‘The Romanticization of Charismatic Leadership in the Arts.’ The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 46(1) pp. 2-12.
  • • Painter-Morland, M., Kirk, S., Deslandes, G., and Tansley, C. (2019) ‘Talent Management: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible.’ European Management Review, 16(1) pp. 135-146.
  • • Pritchard, M.S., and Englehart, E.E. (2020) ‘Ethics, Sustainability and Management Leadership’ In Moosmayer, M., Laasch, O., Parkes, C., and Brown, K.G. (Eds.) The SAGE handbook of responsible management learning, education and development. London: Sage, Chapter 7 pp. 92-109.
  • Reams, J. (Ed.) (2020) Maturing leadership: how adult development impacts leadership. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle)
  • Schein E.H. and Schein P. A. (2017) Organizational Culture and Leadership. 5th ed., Wiley: New Jersey. (selected chapters as indicated on Moodle).
  • Thompson, N. and Pascal, J. (2012) Developing critically reflective practice.’ Reflective Practice, 13(2) pp. 311-325.
• ALSO: Students will be instructed in the use of contemporary academic and reference search engines to find and evaluate relevant literature as well as be directed to relevant journal articles, media and ED&I resources via Moodle (from scholars, thought-leaders, chartered bodies e.g. Chartered Management Institute, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations, Quality Assurance Agency, and official sources e.g. race, ethnicity and gender diversity globalised reporting and development bodies). Resources will include a range of accessible media formats.
• ACADEMIC JOURNALS INCLUDE:
  • Administrative Science Quarterly
  • British Journal of Management
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Human Resource Development International
  • Human Resource Management Journal
  • International Coaching Psychology Review
  • International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring
  • Journal of Applied Psychology
  • Journal of Management Education
  • Leadership
  • Leadership and Organization Development Journal
  • Management Decision
  • Organization Behaviour
  • Personnel Psychology
  • The Coaching Psychologist
  • Training and Development
• ICTS RESOURCES:
  • Online platform including electronic submission (Moodle) and Padlet
  • Hybrid teaching support via Owl technology and MS Teams/zoom
  • Live Streaming via zoom and MS Teams

• Delivered by Department of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability, Faculty of Business and Law.
• OVERVIEW: This unit studies the transformational changes required to address the global challenges across the world today. Students will gain a critical appreciation of social, ethical & environmental challenges facing the enterprise for a better future
• INDICATIVE CONTENT: Key concepts in the unit are about gaining an awareness of global challenges; an analysis of Sustainable Development Goals; examining the drivers for more sustainable business models and the transformational change brought about through a social solidarity economy whilst evaluating case studies of social, ethical and environmental enterprise.
• LEARNING OUTCOMES:
  • 1) Demonstrate awareness & understanding of global challenges facing organisations & society
  • 2) Critically evaluate a range of strategic levers for change drawing on academic & practitioners sources
  • 3) Put forward recommendations for leadership practice to achieve transformational change
• SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: 2500-word report (100%)

• Delivered by multi-disciplinary team, with Personal Tutors from different Faculties (see tab on Personal Tutoring for detail).
• OVERVIEW: How have the skills, knowledges and questions that we have assembled altered our own understanding and practice of ‘leadership’? In this init, students will synthesise their learning and outline their own model of leadership and its potential applications by proposing, organising and delivering professional practice or an independent project.
  • Professional practice: This may include internships, practice, research, or other negotiated professional engagement with an external partner (individuals, community or organisation) in the UK or internationally. The professional link will be initiated by the student with the support of the unit tutor. The research question, content, and individual or group planned engagement will determine the curriculum, supported by tutorials.
  • Project: Students will propose, research, realise, publish and disseminate a project for a public audience.
  • Outputs may include: Exhibition (as artist and/or curator), Research paper, Portfolio of creative and critical work articulating the investigation of a practical or conceptual issue; Intervention for self, community or organisation.
• INDICATIVE CONTENT: Following the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) call to ‘repair injustices while transforming the future’ by the year 2050 and to prioritise ‘human dignity and cultural diversity’, plus ‘care, reciprocity, and solidarity’ (UNESCO 2021), we will locate our practice and research in this unit in the future, around ‘2050’. We will embed the following academic, professional, pastoral and peer support strands:  
  • Community and (under)commons: We will step out of the classroom to undertake field work, study visits and/or residentials, and participate in diverse forms of leadership in action, in situ. Examples include ‘behind the scenes’ guided tour of a grassroots organisation, hands-on workshops, think tank, start-up, and/or more. Such engagement facilitates immersive learning, where we further unpack the themes and learnings across the course. This may take place within Greater Manchester, UK, Europe, and/or worldwide
  • Critical Friendship: We will reflect on our respective personal and professional development. This will be in the form of mentoring, coaching and other forms of critical friendship with Personal Tutors who are industry and academic experts. Further support will be from Graduate Teaching Assistants and MMU Alumni. 
  • Co-Creation: As a culmination of our learnings, the cohort will collaborate on a joint publication with the working title of Creative Arts Leadership for 2050 together, from conceptualisation to dissemination and distribution. The publication will be public-facing, accessible and inclusive, with high production value, widely-disseminated and made available online and offline. Students may also propose to (co-)lead or work on specific aspects (such as editorial, fundraising and more) of the publication as a professional project for this unit.
• LEARNING OUTCOME: On successful completion of this Course Unit students will be able to:
  • 1) Apply successful strategies to establish a professional network and contacts with external agencies, cultural and/or creative organisations and learn how those operate, communicate and how teams are managed
  • 2) Collect, curate and synthesise diverse data, materials and experiences to propose and/or conduct a live project within a professional framework
  • 3) Demonstrate and evaluate professionalism through internal and external collaborations, collective endeavour, negotiation and so on, in line with personal interests and career aspirations
  • 4) Implement research methodologies and tools to identify, evaluate and synthesise information for a self-directed project.
  • 5) Effectively carry out project management of research and practice and/or creative productions involving sustained independent enquiry
• SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
  • ORAL ASSESSMENT (40%): Presentation (with Q&A) supported by visual materials (e.g. PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.).  The presentation (approximately 15 minutes) will take place towards the end of the unit. Students will share their findings and learnings, communicating their research activities and processes, design development and project outcome(s), as well as their future actions.  In preparation for this summative assessment, students will have the opportunity at key points in the module to receive module leader feedback and peer discussion on their project proposals.
  • PORTFOLIO (60%): The portfolio (>2000 words or equivalent), to be entirely or partially shared on the publication, should provide a reflective and critical account of your professional practice or independent project.  Components are expected to include critical evaluation of engagement, discussion and conclusion. As part of this component, students should also record and reflect on how they have engaged with the unit’s academic, professional, pastoral and peer support strands, including the Personal Tutor scheme.
• ESSENTIAL LEARNING RESOURCES:
  • Books: sections from:
  • Harney, Stefano and Moten, Fred. 2013 The undercommons: fugitive planning & black study. Wivenhoe: Minor Compositions.
  • Garza, Alicia. 2020. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. One World. 
  • Khanna, Shama, ed. 2023. Flatness: Queer Diasporic Futurity.
  • More approaches to systemic changes that point to a more equitable future:
  • Report (summary, video clip, full report): UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (2021) Pathways to 2050 and beyond: findings from a public consultation on the futures of higher education. https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/
  • Creative/critical intervention: Forensic Architecture https://forensic-architecture.org/ 
  • Film: Tan, Kai Syng, 2021, How to Thrive in 2050 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09sgyjy
  • Website: Reimagining wealth, power and funding: Edge Fund https://www.edgefund.org.uk  
• FURTHER RESOURCES:
  • Books: sections from:
  • Arendt, Hannah. 1961. Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political Thought. New York: The Viking Press.  https://pensarelespaciopublico.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/hannah-arendt-between-past-and-future.pdf
  • Boehnert, Joanna. 2018. Design, Ecology and Politics: Towards the Ecocene. Bloomsbury, London
  • Demos, T.J. 2020. Beyond the World’s End: Arts of Living at the Crossing. Illustrated edition. Durham: Duke University Press Books.
  • Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby. 2013. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT press.
  • Escobar, Arturo. 2018. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press.
  • Kara, Helen. 2020. Creative Research Methods 2e: A Practical Guide. Second edition. Bristol: Policy Press.
  • Lanier, Jaron. 2014. Who Owns the Future? Export ed. edition. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Jonathan Porritt, The World We Made: Alex McKay’s Story from 2050. 2013, Phaidon Press Inc. New York
  • Tan, Kai Syng, 2023. NEUROFUTURISM: The A-Z of How to Thrive in 2050. Palgrave Macmillan
  • Music, film, multimedia and more:
  • Changing the world, one tic at a time: Jess Thom Touretteshero https://www.touretteshero.com/about/ ; Battersea Arts Centre as the world’s first relaxed theatre and other equitable approaches https://bac.org.uk/our-story/
  • On Trans Futures: Trans Post Project https://attenborougharts.com/commissioning/transpostproject/
  • On Sinofuturism: Works by Lawrence Lek https://lawrencelek.com
  • On Afrofuturism: Exhibition In the Black Fantastic (Hayward Gallery, 2022) curated by Ekow Eshun https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/black-fantastic, and works by Nwando Ebizie https://www.nwandoebizie.com
  • https://www.yuenfongling.com
  • United Nations. (2015) Sustainable Development Goals (Online). Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/
  • Online curatorial journal: Performingborders: Intersectional and transnational borders through the body https://performingborders.live
• ICTS RESOURCES:
  • Website and social media platforms linked to Moodle, MIRO, Padlet and more, as detailed. 
  • Accessibility functions and provisions as detailed 
  • Hybrid teaching support via Owl technology and MS Teams/zoom
  • Live Streaming via zoom and MS Teams 

• I am a tentacular triple threat — and treat! — as an academic-artist-advisor who seeks to exemplify/embody the possibilities of creative arts leadership in my actions and approaches.
• I am an experienced academic developer and leader (PFHEA and National Teaching Award 2023 nomination, drawing on teaching in >200 HEIs worldwide), trans-disciplinary researcher and research leader (three REF-returned portfolios rated >3* best known for my pioneering work relating running and the arts and humanities, and creativity, futurity and leadership with neurodiversity), and award-winning curator and artist (National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement Culture Change Award; San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Film Award). 
• Active, intra-active, pro-active and hyper-active, my creative interventions encompasses: the arts and culture (as board/panel member for CVAN, Unlimited, Fermynwoods, Hear Me Out), health and mental (as the first artist on British Journal of Psychiatry Bulletin editorial board), disability and neurodiversity (co-leading £4.8 million opening and closing ceremonies of Asia’s paralympics, leading to lasting attitudinal shifts; generating policy change at UK Parliament Knowledge Exchange Unit); queer rights (co-founding MMU’s first LGBTQIA+ History Month festival) — and even a global Fortune 25 shipping company and military intelligence (discussion with a Ministry of Defence leader on recruiting autistic employees). 
• I have showcased my artistic research on >900 platforms (MOMA New York, Documenta and more), taught and/or consulted in >100 HEIs and organisations (including Royal College of Art, Australian National University and Singapore government’s Media Authority for 5 years) and won >15 awards (including National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement Images Culture Change Award and San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award).
• I moved to Manchester in 09/2019 to join Manchester Metropolitan University as Senior Lecturer and specialist in creative leadership to be a Programme Leader for a new Creative Arts Leadership MA.    

• Putin. Pizzagate. Pandemic. Policies paralysing the precariat. Profits poisoning the planet. Procedures persecuting people of colour, who are queer, or with queer brains and minds. Has pale/stale leadership caused our state of perma-crisis? Or isn’t ‘leadership’ as a concept and practice itself in crisis?
• Artful, agile and atypical, the Creative Arts Leadership MA is an urgent creative pedagogical intervention. Despite its tentacular nature spanning a wide range of topics, ‘leadership’ is often not discussed within the arts and humanities. Instead, similar to how future studies was previously ‘rejected’ in the social sciences (Urry 2016), leadership is often derided as a neo-liberalist construct in the arts (e.g. Hoyle 2018). This is despite how, from the copious sketches and notes that spurred human’s dream of flying by Leonardo da Vinci, to game-changing movements like the global crowdfunding platform Kickstarter by artist Perry Chen, evidence abounds on how art and artful approaches have played a profound role to transform how we see, feel, think, organise, work and play (Tan 2020a).
• Within the arts & humanities, neurodiversity as creative and cultural phenomena and process(es) also remain ‘invisible’ – much like the disability itself (Tan 2018). This is at odds with how neuro-minorities are over-represented in the arts (Bacon and Bennett 2013; RCA 2016), including da Vinci whose mirror-writing and intellectual promiscuity were due to his dyslexia and ADHD (Røsstad 2002; Mangione and Maestro 2019; Catani and Mazzarello 2019).
• BAD NEWS: The ambitious Creative Arts Leadership MA won’t solve the systemic and global issues overnight. GOOD NEWS: It seeks to address these lacunae!
• The course scopes, maps, and enacts the possibilities of a more equitable creative leadership praxis. It seeks to counter the danger of a ‘single story’ (Adichie 2009) and re-imagine ‘leadership’ by starting from the drawing board, to draw on examples from the arts and culture. Crucially, following the ground-clearing labour and rigour of black feminist approaches which interrogate not just the what, but how and why of knowledge production (Collins 2000), including prejudices embedded within positivist critiques of patriarchal systems (Obasi 2022), the course will also highlight – and seeks to dismantle – colonialist monuments, models and mechanisms within existing discourses and practices. The Creative Arts Leadership MA will thus equip and empower participants to take a step back to review the forces that have given rise to toxic templates of governance and power, and step up, to curate bold visions and tactics that celebrate new models, role models and ecosystems.

• The delay caused by the pandemic has enabled me to conduct deep and extensive primary research and consultation with >100 senior academic and industry experts as well as community stakeholders about new modes of leadership required for future crises.
• External consultants include neurodivergent business leader and academic Prof. Chin Hwee Tan, CEO Asia Pacific of Trafigura (US$147 billion revenue), Katelijn Verstraete, former Director Arts & Creative Industries East Asia British Council, and David Moutrey, Manchester Director of Culture and CEO of HOME Theatre.Manchester Met colleagues I have engaged with include PVC Education, the Faculty’s DPVC, Heads of Education, International, University Teaching Academy, School Of Digital Arts, Policy Evaluation Research Unit and more.
• Instead of passively re-laying/reproducing existing knowledge, the unique MA critiques and seeks to improve on arts management and leadership PG offerings common in HE today. Research-driven and student-centred, the MA creatively interrogates ‘leadership’, and seeks to re-imagine new models centring EDI, with/for/by learners and teachers keen to disrupt and advance their own practice and thinking to create personal, organisational, and social change.
  • Executive version akin to an MBA in the arts, modelled after the Ivy League executive leadership courses albeit with socially-engaged agenda and fee-system (below)
  • Creative, radical funding schemes, bursaries and multi-tiered system, such as full fee-paying students subsidizing free spaces for marginalised students all of whom will learn side-by-side
  • Online delivery with low residency during summer with a Summer Summit
  • Summer Summit: High-level, high-profile but socially-engaged and equitable equivalent of Davos
  • Hybrid/hyflex versions; block teaching