<p>I have to disagree with glassharmonica’s comment. It was definitely true in the past that someone in arts management came from a performance background. But the arts mgmt programs weren’t around then. I teach in SPEA (so that’s my bias up front) and I can tell you that our masters students and most of our undergrad students in arts mgmt are successfully finding management jobs in theatre companies, orchestras, opera companies, galleries, museums, etc. We require them to graduate with experience (i.e., via an internship) and they take very focused applied courses (marketing, price setting, budgeting, nonprofit management, fundraising).</p>