Oliver Bliss

Relationship Manager Engagement and Audience, North, Arts Council England

Course: MA Arts Management, Policy and Practice, Part Time, 2011-2013

The Masters course gave me the tools and experiences I required to make a significant step change in my career.  Through a little negotiation with my employer, I was able to take on the responsibility of working full time whilst studying part time. The course was a hugely rewarding experience. I highly recommend anyone who is considering taking the plunge of a Masters to go for it regardless of how nervous you are of the impact on your work and life balance. It’s more manageable than I initially expected and it’s incredibly rewarding in a myriad of ways.  

The course itself provided me with the tools which I draw upon regularly and apply in practice. The content of the lectures significantly informed and framed my thinking. They gave me the chance to discuss ideas and approaches in a safe environment. The course content itself was broken down into digestible pieces with reading to prepare you for weekly lectures that lead on to an essay for each module. The lecturers empower you to embrace your own journey; they help steer you through a process, which was initially daunting, without hand holding. The University has a range of lecturers who are passionate and with distinctive personalities, and all willing you to succeed. They appear to have this endless resource of energy and knowledge and they use to motivate you to explore and challenge concepts and make independent inquiry.  They definitely rekindled my enthusiasm and passion for learning. They enabled me the space to become bolder and have individually shaped my outlook. 

I was particularly pleased by the practical opportunities the course provided to gain working experience with the arts sector. They provided a platform to build new relationships whilst opening opportunities to visit theatres and arts centres like Culture Quays, Contact Theatre and the Contemporary Arts Society. Additionally as someone who is dyslexic, I found that the University provided exceptional support facilities enabling me to overcome my barriers. I had the reassurance that my needs were understood by lecturers with additional staff support provided for writing. 

My dissertation involved a reflective investigation of action based research working with a theatre going through a period of change. Several spaces within the theatre itself were underused and I was invited to identify new possibilities within the current architecture of the building. The process involved interviews with every level of the organisation; from the board, staff and audiences using the theatre. The objective was to analyse the research I had gathered and identify opportunities as a foundation for recommendations regarding how spaces within the premises might be utilised in future. The dissertation gave me practical experiences of mapping and segmenting audience profiles whilst informing my understanding of the range of characters and relationships involved in making a successful venue. 

The Masters course enabled me to progress to a new level within my career. I continue to draw upon these experiences in my new role as Relationship Manager for Audience and Engagement with Arts Council England. I now work with a portfolio of organisation across Yorkshire with a specialism in participation and audience development. The work involves supporting the arts and cultural sector stimulate arts activity in areas of least engagement with the arts. I have the pleasure of meeting individual artists and practitioners, across art forms and organisations leading on larger scale events and projects such as our Creative People and Places programme.  

The cultural sector career pathways have never felt clearly laid out to me and with everyone I meet their journey has been unique. The Masters course however provided me personally with a great foundation to hone and understand my skills whilst broadening my horizons. If you take on a Masters course you are allowing yourself the opportunity to channel and test ideas and you can stumble upon unexpected platforms offering new experiences, introducing you to a wider range of interesting professionals and places.