LIVING ARTS. Innovation in cultural management
General Presentation
Start date: September 29, 2025
End date: April 30, 2026
Modality: online + face-to-face
– Online: from September 29, 2024 to January 30, 2025
– Face-to-face: from February to April 30, 2026
Language: Spanish and English
Price: 8.500
Option of mobility grants of up to 750€.
Guaranteed internships in international festivals and institutions in different European countries.
Important information: Non-European international students can take the master’s degree with a normal tourist visa; no special visa is required since the face-to-face part of the master’s degree does not exceed the 3 months covered by the tourist visa.
A 4-month online Master + 1 month in Valencia preparing the TFM and the internship + 2 months working in the most prestigious festivals and institutions in Europe.
Description
THE MASTER’S DEGREE IN LIVING ARTS. INNOVATION IN CULTURAL MANAGEMENT responds to the new market needs in the creation, organization and dissemination of cultural and artistic events.
It offers students the knowledge and practices for the ideation, planning and development of a cultural project, from festivals to events and international competitions; to be part of a creative team that manages activities in living arts, as well as the tools for the entrepreneurship of a cultural project of their own.
The concept of living arts focuses on the hybridization of different art disciplines to explore and meet new needs in the promotion and dissemination of the cultural and creative sectors.
The master’s degree covers a wide range of professional profiles, ranging from management, organization, financing, management, coordination and intervention in cultural projects. Students will acquire extensive knowledge of the different disciplines that make up the phenomenon of culture and its fields of action, as well as new ways of approaching the public and creating audiences, through participatory dynamics and new formats. The application of creative processes, the use of innovative methodologies and technological tools are fundamental axes in the new organizational models of cultural industries.
Cultural activities that are dynamic scenarios where artists, managers, institutions and diverse audiences converge.
The master’s degree consists of 4 modules + two months of intership, which will take place in a prestigious festival/institution located in a European country and proposed by the direction of the MA, along with a Final Master’s Project, which the student develops accompanied by a tutor and presents as a conclusion of his training course in the master’s degree.
Structure:
October 2025 to January 2026:
online classes and tutorials.
February 2026:
classes and mentoring sessions in Valencia, Spain.
March and April 2026:
internships in festivals and international organizations + teaching follow-up through online tutorials.
End of April 2026:
presentation and evaluation of the Master’s Final Project in Valencia + graduation event.
Aimed at:
Students and professionals in the cultural sector interested in developing competencies to plan, direct and manage cultural projects, as well as undertake a cultural project of their own.
Internship in festivals and cultural organizations:
The realization of 2 months of internships at festivals is a key training experience for students, as it allows them to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in a real professional environment.
During the months of March and April 2026, students will carry out their internships in international organizations and festivals proposed by the Master’s program management.
These internships offer students the opportunity to be directly involved in the management and organization of living arts cultural events, fostering the development of essential skills.
During the month of face-to-face classes in Valencia, students will prepare and plan their internships with the Master’s tutors.
MODULES
Module 1.
Theoretical foundations of cultural and creative industries.
The concept of CULTURE and LIVING ARTS. Cultural industries today and in the future.
Creativity as a management tool.
New solutions for the management of the cultural sector.
Creation and reinvention of processes.
This module prepares students to critically analyze the cultural and creative industries from multiple perspectives, fostering a comprehensive understanding that enables both reflection and strategic action in the creative cultural sector.
Module 2.
Project design, planning and entrepreneurship
Ideas and project development: from idea to project.
Cultural and creative entrepreneurship: capabilities and resources.
Typologies of cultural events.
Planning and timing.
Team management.
Legal and juridical aspects in cultural industries.
Patronage and financing.
The module focuses on providing students with tools and methodologies to create, structure, manage and evaluate projects related to the cultural field.
Module 3A
Communication in the field of culture
Communication strategies.
Design and planning.
Marketing applied to culture.
Module 3B
Audience development
The cultural audience: study, trends and mediation.
Study of new audiences.
Audiences and education.
The module focuses on the analysis and understanding of how communication processes are deeply integrated in the construction, transmission and transformation of culture. Its main objective is to teach strategies and tools to communicate and connect with different audiences, increase participation and strengthen the impact of cultural projects.
Module 4.
Innovation and culture
Innovation, technology and cultural industries.
The technological paradigm and digital transformation.
Strategic elements of innovation.
The module provides tools, knowledge and strategies to foster innovation capacity in cultural projects, while addressing the role of culture as a key factor for success in innovation.
Module 5.
Master’s Final Project
The Master’s Final Project (TFM) is a fundamental part, it represents the culmination of the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the program and allows students to practically and creatively apply everything they have learned.
Objectives:
Demonstrate the ability to integrate and apply the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired during the master’s degree.
To foster innovation and creativity in the ideation and planning of cultural projects in the field of the living arts.
To enhance the professional and personal skills necessary for the management and execution of cultural projects.
+ 2 months of internships in prestigious European festivals and institutions
COLLABORATING FESTIVALS
European Festival Association (Brussels)
The European Festival Association unites and represents its member festivals from all over Europe and the world and contributes to the artistic life of Europe. It acts as the most important platform for artistic festivals.
100 festivals, 40 countries, infinite connections.
EFA members are the core element that makes the Association an open, influential and international place for any festival that wants to be part of a larger festival community.
World Heritage Cities Group – UNESCO (Spain)
The Festival and platform for choreographic creation in heritage spaces, ESCENA PATRIMONIO, continues to strengthen its commitment to the valorisation of the ‘living heritage’ of the 15 World Heritage Cities of Spain, highlighting both local talents and contemporary creation at national and international level. A space for exchange between UNESCO World Heritage Cities, their heritage spaces, artistic territories and diverse audiences.
KVS Brussels
KVS is the flamenco theatre of Brussels. It reinterprets the repertoire in relation to the city which is more than ever the whole world. It embraces the city and its plurality and aims to amplify its artistic voice in the arts. It considers interculturality on and around the stage not as a task or a challenge, but as a logical principle, as well as a strong presence in Flanders and internationally.
Santarcangelo Festival (Italy)
Santarcangelo dei Teatri organises the oldest Italian festival dedicated to contemporary performing arts in Italy and one of the most significant in the European context of theatre and dance.
Since 2012, the association’s activities run continuously throughout the year, organising meetings and events aimed at nurturing local theatre culture by hosting artists in residence and curating projects designed for local audiences. Then, in the summer, the festival explodes for ten days in July, intensely for the presence of artists, creations, performances, seminars, workshops, meeting places.
La Fábrica (PhotoEspaña – Festival EÑE)
The Eñe Festival is a renowned literary event that has been running since 2009 in the city of Madrid, Spain.
Every year, when autumn tints the city with warm colours, Madrid is transformed into the epicentre of creativity and passion for literature in this great literary celebration. This literary festival, known as Eñe, is a meeting that brings together the most prominent figures in the literary world.
La Casa Encendida (Spain)
La Casa Encendida is a prestigious cultural centre of Fundación Montemadrid, open and dynamic, where the most avant-garde artistic expressions come together.
Since 2002, its cultural programme has offered performing arts, cinema, exhibitions and other manifestations of contemporary creation.
Since its beginnings, La Casa Encendida has supported young creators in the development of their initiatives with programmes such as Emergencias, En Casa and the Artists in Residence programme.
In addition, La Casa Encendida has a complete resource centre (library, media library and newspaper and periodicals library) accessible to all audiences.
Fabbrica Europa (Italy)
Fabbrica Europa was born in 1994 with the aim to create a home in Florence for the culture of all Europe. In thirty years of activity Fabbrica Europa has become a renowned space for new artistic languages and the contemporary arts.
Fabbrica Europa, which contributed to giving a location of industrial archaeology – the Stazione Leopolda – back to the city, has been a pioneer of Europe in Florence and Tuscany. Becoming over the years an active cultural hub which, going beyond limits and crossing borders, has built bridges and connections beyond Europe with projects in Asia, Africa, Canada, South America, with a well-recognizable identity, linked to the world of performing arts, including dance, music, theatre, interdisciplinary formats and multimedia and visual arts projects.
With 30 editions of the festival, Fabbrica Europa is continuing to give space to innumerable local, national and international artistic realities, via projects of production, professional development and cultural exploration. It has built a network of exchange capable of consolidating fertile artistic ground with high impact. It makes an important contribution to the recognition of Florence as a point of encounter for different cultures and to the development of an audience for innovative artistic events outside the traditional circuits.
Festival 10 sentidos (Spain)
Since 2011, the 10 Senses Festival has been consolidated, edition after edition, with the satisfaction of having turned this encounter with art (scenic, plastic, cinematographic, audiovisual, literary, didactic…) into a reference and a must every year in Valencia. The Festival of the living arts of Valencia.
The choreographers and dancers Meritxell Barberá & Inma García, from the company Taiat Dansa, are the founders and directors of the Festival 10 Sentidos, their most ambitious project as cultural managers. In 2010 they set up GmExpresa, a management and dynamisation company for cultural action, design and communication projects. In this way, their current professional career brings together choreographic creation, Taiat Dansa, with their cultural management work, which they articulate and develop from GmExpresa.
The 10 Senses Festival is committed to researching new languages of communication through art, generating knowledge and consolidating a space open to relations between artists, society and individuals. Contemporary creation, research, interdisciplinary and transversal themes are the main features of the Festival, an event that is totally open to the search for new codes, to emerging creation and the work of established artists, to the internationalisation of proposals in coexistence with both local and national proposals. To create a dialogue between artists, audiences, spectators, associations, society and communities, schools, students and training spaces, as a showcase for the living arts in Valencia.
A lo largo del curso se realizan masterclasses con profesionales de diferentes ámbitos de las industrias culturales
Faculty
Directors
Meritxell Barberá & Inma García
https://www.instagram.com/taiatdansa
https://www.instagram.com/festival10sentidos
Teaching staff
Meritxell Barberá
Teacher
Artistic director of the Festival 10 Sentidos, co-director of the creative studio GmExpresa, co-director and choreographer of the company Taiat Dansa.
She holds a degree in Classical and Contemporary Dance from the Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Valencia. She has a degree in Information Sciences, specialising in Journalism from the CEU Cardenal Herrera Valencia University, a Master’s Degree in Cultural Services Management and a Diploma in Performing Arts Management from the University of Valencia.
Inma García
Teacher
Executive Director of the Festival 10 Sentidos, co-director of the creative studio GmExpresa, co-director and choreographer of the company Taiat Dansa.
Graduate in Contemporary Dance from the Conservatorio Superior de Danza de València. Graduate in Art History from the University of Valencia, Master’s Degree in Cultural Services Management and Diploma in Performing Arts Management from the University of Valencia.
Lorenzo Papagallo
Lecturer
Artistic director, curator and cultural manager.
Cultural Affairs Advisor and Artistic Director for the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain – UNESCO, as well as associate curator of performing arts for various institutions in Spain and abroad.
He holds a degree in Translation and Interpreting, as well as postgraduate studies in Cultural Project Management, International Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility, carried out in several European universities in France, UK, Germany and Spain.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzo-pappagallo
Sara Bacigalupe
Coordinator
Teacher, project manager and production manager. She has worked as a coordinator and producer for stage companies such as Colectivo Nerval, Taiat Dansa and Festival 10 Sentidos.
She has worked for companies such as Zara, Mango, Loewe and Vogue, among others.
She holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid and a diploma in Scenography and Performance Architecture from the TAI University of Arts, as well as a diploma in Artistic Ceramics from the EASC Manises.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-bacigalupe
Masterclasses
Throughout the course, masterclasses are held with professionals from different areas of the cultural industries, creators, directors of festivals and cultural projects at a national and international level, which will complement and enrich the different modules of the master’s degree.
