How do you teach business to art students? That’s what adjunct faculty member Melanie McLeod had to think through when she began teaching business classes at Moore in 2001.
“I had to really sit down and figure out how to create a course that’s more for them,” said the business and life coach. “You have left-brain and right-brain people. They are going to receive the information very, very differently.”
McLeod was involved in writing the curriculum to create the business minor back in 2009. Students are hands-on in her accounting and marketing classes, and she encourages them to create fliers and objects for promotional materials and campaigns. She also learns from them. “They help me to connect to my creative side, too, so I can get what I know across to them in a better way.”
McLeod and adjuncts Sean Bailey and his brother, Patrick, teach the fundamentals through four courses that focus on business experience: principles and practices, accounting, marketing and entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurship is the idea that a small entity can grow as an enterprise over time,” said Sean Bailey, who describes himself as a self-employed arts professional. “And the idea that we’re bringing insight about larger business structures helps the students understand what a goal could be for them down the line.”
Kellen Wardwell ’21, an Animation & Game Arts major who is pursuing a business minor, said her ultimate goal is to be able to market herself.
“Besides the marketing element, the business minor is crucial to me for the simple fact that learning everyday economics is important,” said Wardwell, who sells crochet pieces in Moore’s Art Shop. “Managing money, paying taxes and bills, paying off loans—I don’t get that information from my other non-business classes.”
“If you want to make a career out of your art, you should understand how to sell it and how the economy works,” said Alexa Rosenblatt ’20, an Interior Design major. “I intend on owning my own business one day, so I knew it would benefit me in the long run to take these classes.”
This article appeared in the Fall 2019 Moore magazine.
