Booth students observing art

Arts and Creative Enterprise Initiative

The Arts and Creative Enterprise Initiative (ACE) at Chicago Booth explores the intersection of arts and business through curriculum, programming, and academic research in order to foster engagement, fuel innovative thought and practice, and advance positive impact in the cultural and creative sectors.

From speaker series and hands-on workshops to networking opportunities with sector leaders, the program provides students and professionals alike with a dynamic platform for engagement and learning.

With the arts as an entry point, ACE helps build the creativity, innovation, collaboration, and critical thinking skills necessary to lead and manage in today’s complex business and civic landscapes.

Students looking at art in the Harper Center

About ACE at Chicago Booth 

ACE leverages Chicago Booth’s faculty and the vibrancy of Chicago’s art scene, plus a global network of experts, to curate offerings in three areas:

  • Creativity and innovation theory and practice
  • Management and economics in the nonprofit sector
  • Management and economics in for-profit creative industries

ACE offerings are designed to serve those who aspire to a career in the arts and creative fields as well as those seeking to expand their artistic horizons and creative capabilities.
 
Drawing upon examples from museums and concert halls to film companies and media streaming platforms, ACE highlights the power of visionary leadership and interdisciplinary management practices to build organizations whose survival depends upon continuous innovation. Through active engagement with the arts and creative enterprises, students hone business skills that are valuable in all professional endeavors.

About ACE at Chicago Booth 
Two people crafting at a table

Why Now? Why Booth?

Through the Booth art collection, housed across our global campuses, we demonstrate every day that art is central to the school’s culture and ethos. The artworks in the collection are distinctive not just for their aesthetic value but for the breadth of their perspectives. The collection features art that grapples with the issues of our day in bold and meaningful ways, and invites debate—just as we do in our curriculum.

Booth is also home to several courses incorporating arts and creativity into management education. The Arts + Business Lab and Arts Leadership courses were developed and are taught by Mary Ittelson, adjunct associate professor of strategy and strategic director for ACE. Her courses challenge students to develop their own perspectives on the ways in which commerce, creativity, and culture can align and collide in the leadership of arts organizations, as well as honing their creative and critical thinking for exemplary leadership in any sector.

Amidst rapid technological, economic, and cultural shifts, we need leaders with the imagination and creativity of artists as well as with the strategic management training that Booth offers its students. ACE, with its dual focus on art and business, will allow the school to cultivate leaders who possess the creativity, resilience, and courage to forge new paths of impact and meaning.

Why Now? Why Booth?

Faculty Directors

Alex Imas

Alex Imas

Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Professor of Behavioral Science, Economics and Applied AI and Vasilou Faculty Scholar

Alex Imas

Strategic Director

Stories from Our Community