At least a Two-Way Street – decolonising arts management curricula in Kingston and Belfast

Abstract

With the rising popularity of arts management and creative industries programmes, there have been concerns about the eurocentrism of these programmes, disquiet about the student demographic and the consequences for an increasingly globalised arts sector and cultural economy. However, these concerns have largely been discussed within the context of individual university programmes and aligned with a need for curriculum internationalisation across the North-South/East-West continua. Through a comparative case study of two arts management/film curricula in UK and Jamaica, I argue that, firstly, curricula decolonisation, not just internationalisation, is needed. Additionally, curricula decolonisation requires the inclusion of a relational geographic framework, in recognition of the relational geographic nature of coloniality. Thirdly, while application made by individual academics and within academic programmes is key, curricula decolonisation necessitates re-examination of the hegemonic coloniality of the international academic system, especially in the interdisciplinary field of cultural policy/arts management/creative industries due to coloniality’s foundational cultural hierarchy. Curricula decolonisation is, at very least, a two-way street requiring North-South/East-West exchanges, partnerships and transformation; or at the simplest, a decolonial community of practice.