Creative Social Entrepreneurship | College of Fine Arts

Undergraduate Certificate

Uncover your entrepreneurial skills with our Undergraduate Certificate in Creative Social Entrepreneurship. Our cutting-edge program is 100% online and asynchronous, offering you the chance to embed entrepreneurship into your creative practice and ignite social change.

Establish a dynamic creative career, build entrepreneurial skills for social good, become a creative social entrepreneur. The Undergraduate Certificate in Creative Social Entrepreneurship offers a flexible and in-depth curriculum in an asynchronous, 100% online learning environment. Creative social entrepreneurship is a transdisciplinary field connecting creative, social, and entrepreneurial practices to improve the economic, environmental, political, and social well-being of society.

There is high demand for creative professionals with creativity, originality, initiative, and innovation and entrepreneurship skills across nonprofit, governmental, for-profit, and start-up companies.

As an emerging creative social entrepreneur, you will gain hands-on experience, engage with industry leading experts, and participate in transdisciplinary collaboration to become a visionary leader who uses creative talent to drive positive change and build a more sustainable and ethical creative and cultural sector.

Apply now and join us in shaping a future where your creative social entrepreneurship vision drives positive transformation in your community and beyond.

Why choose our program?

Integration into undergraduate degree programs at the University of Kentucky
Flexible Asynchronous Online Format
Relevant Curriculum for Creative Entrepreneurial Success
Top-quality Teaching by Industry Experts and Leading Researchers
Strategic Application in the Job Market
High-quality Online Learning Experience
World’s First Undergraduate Program in Creative Social Entrepreneurship

The skills you are likely to gain from the program:

Understanding the value and economic contributions of the creative and cultural sector
Identifying entrepreneurial opportunities involving creative and social practices
Conducting market research for creative market and industry discovery
Connecting entrepreneurial risks with creative and social values
Interpreting important financial strategies for creative social enterprise development
Presenting and communicating entrepreneurial ideas to varied audiences of stakeholders

Program development sponsored by University of Kentucky’s Office of the Provost IMPACT Grant and the Gary B. Knapp Endowment.

Our program is directly aligned with the following UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Quality Education Decent Work and Economic Growth Industry Innovation and Infrastructure Reduced Inequalities

Curriculum

Our program is designed to inspire creative professionals and practitioners who are looking to develop entrepreneurship knowledge and skills and leverage creativity for social good and community change.

Core Curriculum (15 credit hours)

CSE 571: The Creative and Cultural Industries (1 credit hour): In order to create a strong new business venture or enterprise, you need to become intimately familiar with the industrial context surrounding the arts. Students in the Creative and Cultural Industries course will explore the landscape of the creative and cultural industries, one of the biggest economic sectors, within the United States.
CSE 572: Creative and Social Entrepreneurial Readiness (1 credit hour): Embarking on an entrepreneurial endeavor requires a strong sense of readiness. Students in the Creative and Social Entrepreneurial Readiness apply managerial and leadership concepts towards the development of creative social entrepreneurial mindset and skillset.
CSE 573: Customer Discovery in the Creative and Cultural Industries (1 credit hour): Knowing the people and behaviors of people in the creative and cultural industries grounds the development of any new creative social venture. Students in the Customer Discovery in the Creative and Cultural Industries course will utilize customer discovery techniques to analyze the market surrounding their new venture.
CSE 575: New Creative Social Venture Planning (3 credit hours): Strategic management and planning of a new creative social venture requires skill development in visioning, making calculated assumptions, and building the creative, social, and enterprise structures for your new ventures. Students in the New Creative Social Venture Planning course will evaluate and create strategic enterprise plans for the development of their new creative social venture.
CSE 576: Start Up Financing for Creative Social Enterprises (3 credit hours): Every business needs a strategy for developing their organizational financing. For start-up creative social entrepreneurs, financial strategy sets the foundation for new ventures to grow, scale, and adapt their enterprise development. Students in the Start-Up Financing for Creative Social Entrepreneurs course will evaluate and create financial plans, documents, and systems for the development of their creative social enterprises.
AAD 595: Arts and Creativity Accelerator (3 credit hours): Every artist needs a studio to practice and develop their creative skills. In entrepreneurship, and accelerator serves as the creativity and innovation studio where a creative social entrepreneur can build on their strategies and begin to establish a viable business. In the arts and creativity accelerator course, students who have spent time working on and ideating their creative social ventures will put their knowledge into practice and work towards the development of an initial arts-centered minimum viable product to catalyze their creative social entrepreneurship ideas.

AAD or other courses selected in consultation with advisor and by departmental approval