By Tate Glover
Elizabeth Gerber is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and the faculty founder of Design for America. Her interests and areas of study often intersect multiple disciplines and bring into sharper focus the role of technology and design in the modern era. Gerber came to speak with the MSLCE program during our Professional Development class.
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By Nick Roman
As the winter quarter came to a close, MSLCE students and faculty packed their bags and headed out to one of three trek immersions: New York City, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. While all three connected students with invaluable professionals and companies in the creative industries, New York stood out as the heart of theatre, a mecca of art museums, and one of the most diverse cities on our planet.
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By Jacob Nelson
While studying to be a performer as an undergraduate at Stephens College, Dana Degnan realized she enjoyed the business and “back-end” area of the arts more than what she was training to do onstage.
“And that is how I ended up at Northwestern in the MSLCE program,” Degnan said. (more…)
By Charlie Wein
Grad school is a great place to learn valuable skills for the future. The MSLCE program does a wonderful job of providing a comprehensive education to young professionals looking to fast track their careers in the creative industries. However, while classes are valuable, there’s no substitute for examining how those acquired skills can be utilized in the real professional world. The MSLCE program understands this and provides the greatest opportunity for the students to have that experience by taking a trek to a major US city to visit some of the highest profile companies.
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By Poorvi Nair
Ever wanted to know how many people visit the top social media sites in the world? Or how much time each person spends on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and what demographics are visiting these sites?
This winter quarter, many students took Understanding Media Markets: Users, Makers, Metrics, which explored the metrics side of the entertainment industry through desktop and mobile channels. Students got the opportunity to directly work with CommScore software (an American media measuring and analytics company that provides marketing data and analytics). The class also entailed the methods and metrics creative enterprises use to create their digital audiences.
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By Tate Glover
For our final winter quarter Arts, Public Purpose, and Policy class meeting, Dr. Jennifer Novak-Leonard set up a visit to Washington Park to see the work being done by Place Lab and Theaster Gates. Place Lab is an initiative developed by collaboration within the University of Chicago and led by professor and renowned artist Theaster Gates. We started out our trip by meeting up at the Currency Exchange Cafe, a business started by Theaster Gates and operated in partnership with a nonprofit he founded, Rebuild Foundation, which is located on the developing Arts Block and run and staffed entirely by south side locals. Although serving coffee and food is central to operations, it is not the primary purpose of the cafe. The mission of the cafe is twofold: provide a place for creatives and innovators to meet and to support the local community. These goals were interlaced not only with the cafe’s purpose, but also with the mission of Place Lab.
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By Charlie Wein
What is a brand? A logo? A product? A name? Yes, all of those things can comprise a brand, but what about an idea, or a person, or you? Are you a brand? Do you market yourself? Many people would say no. Pull out your phone, do you have Instagram? Facebook? Snapchat? If so, then according the PJ Loughran, Executive Creative Director of the major creative company Superfly, you are.
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By: Charlie Wein
So, you have an innovative idea, strong networking, financial stability, and brand recognition; you’ve got a good business, which is…good, but how do make it great? Students in the Leadership for the Creative Enterprises program spent winter term with professor Cory Sandrock figuring out how to take a good business and make it a great one.
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By Tate Glover
How do we talk about the value of the arts?
This was one of the key questions we set out to answer in Arts, Public Purpose, and Policy taught by Dr. Jennifer Novak-Leonard. In the class we spoke at length about the different ways that the arts are supported by government at national, state, and local levels, as well as by independent organizations.
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By Chad Hewitt
After spending nearly 20 weeks studying the many different aspects of the creative industries, the 2018 MSLCE cohort boarded planes bound for New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles for a week long professional trek. Each trek is designed to offer students with an up-close look at a variety of companies in the different cities while also providing opportunities to connect with industry leaders in a professional setting. The students on the New York City trek enjoyed a diverse tour of several different organizations, ranging from a locally focused arts collective to the international behemoth Facebook. Each of the speakers and site visits provided the MSLCE group with multiple perspectives about the pace, opportunities, and challenges of working in the creative industries in the cultural center of the world.
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