History
Arts Enterprise was started on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus in August of 2006 as a collaborative venture between the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and the Ross School of Business Administration. Our national organization, Arts Enterprise Central, coordinates and connects the arts and business worlds through high-impact, student-run chapters with its unified, national network. The mission of Arts Enterprise Central is to educate, promote, and support emerging leaders who utilize the arts and business to create social change and sustainable ventures. AEC provides support for students to work across disciplines to enhance their education, open new career paths, develop their entrepreneurial imagination, and improve the overall quality of campus and community life.
AE has succeeded in developing a replicable and sustainable model that fills curricular voids on both arts and business campuses across the country and its impact has been remarkable. Our members have organized over one hundred programs ranging from business and arts leadership activities to service-learning projects. To date, AE has over 200 members on the campuses of Bowling Green State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Iowa. Our model is strong and we, as an organization, feel that there is clear demand for Arts Enterprise on other campuses. With the expertise we have in place, and the enthusiasm of members in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, we are confident that we can replicate the chapter model and build a large network of student-led chapters across the United States.
AE is unique among a growing number of arts entrepreneurship initiatives because we focus our efforts on creating a scalable network that connects a variety of professional programs, rather than serving a single campus or constituency. We are a grassroots initiative that promotes experiential learning and creative problem-solving skills to build student leaders who positively impact the human condition.
