Creative Entrepreneurship | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Creative Entrepreneurship

Emboldening Creatives to Transform Businesses

Artists, designers, and business leaders need creativity, imagination, and technical skills to make an impact. Creative practices are increasingly contributing to the overall economy, meaningful employment, sustainability jobs, and innovative businesses. To add real value, creatives need to address economic, environmental, and social complexities emerging from globalization. The growth of jobs in sustainability and mission-driven businesses calls for leaders who are adaptable, collaborative, innovative, and action-oriented.

In this program, students get hands-on experience to develop their creative and entrepreneurial skills. Using teamwork and collaboration, they gain the confidence to apply creativity to a project or business with transformative economic, social, and environmental results. As MCAD's only Bachelor of Science degree, and the region's only art and design college with this type of major, the offers opportunities to work on real client or community-based projects. It’s also the first in the nation to offer a concentration in climate entrepreneurship, an exciting practice of engaging stakeholders, refining their designs, demonstrating success in the market, and then deploying solutions for greater global impact.

Students chatting in the E/studio

Learn more about Creative Entrepreneurship

As a Creative Entrepreneurship major, you will:

  • Develop your creative practice(s) along with proficiency in marketable skills, such as business ideation and development, design thinking, project management, futurecasting, and creative leadership.
  • Hone creative and critical skills to work independently and collaboratively.
  • Experience working with external clients on local and global projects, gaining intercultural insights, and developing a professional network and portfolio.
  • Apply tools and methods to build long-term economic sustainability that balance the needs of people, planet, and profit.
  • Use systems thinking, design thinking, and human-centered service design to create solutions for complex local and global problems.
  • Gain skills and experience to start a business venture, or work as a creative professional in the nonprofit or private sector.
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Class Highlights

Many of the Bachelor of Science program courses use a teamwork approach to simulate real working environments, and include problem solving and product development with external clients. Past clients have included Target, Red Wing Shoes, The Lake Street Council, and other corporate, non-profit, and start-up partners.

Required classes include:

  • Persuasion and Marketing
  • Ideation and Process
  • Creative Economies
  • Self-Employment and Creating a Business
  • Funding Creative Ventures
  • Project Management
  • Designing Sustainable Futures

Degree Information

After MCAD

There are many paths to explore with a degree in Creative Entrepreneurship.

Potential careers include:

  • Entrepreneur/Creative Business Owner
  • Creative Director
  • Strategist
  • Account Executive
  • Project Manager
  • User Experience (UX) Specialist
  • Experience/Event Designer
  • Video Production Editor/Producer

Additional Careers

Dual Degree Option!

MCAD is excited to offer a new Dual Degree Program where students can earn a BS in Creative Entrepreneurship and an MA in Sustainable Design over 11 semesters.

Students enrolled in the Creative Entrepreneurship undergraduate major who are accepted into the program take 15 credits (5 courses) in the Sustainable Design graduate program during junior and senior years. Following graduation from the undergraduate program, students move seamlessly into the masters program, completing an additional 15 credits (5 courses) over three semesters in order to earn the advanced degree.

Learn More

See what students in the major are making

"This program helped advance my artistic practice by fostering my entrepreneurial spirit. We designed solutions that were unique and impactful for our clients and for the communities we designed within."

Justin Lees ’23, Videographer and Product Engineer at Apple Inc.


More Alumni

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2501 Stevens Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404

Contact Us

612.874.3700
800.874.MCAD (6223)
Fax: 612.874.3701

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Land Acknowledgement

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) acknowledges it is located on traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people. This is the ancestral homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe people, who were forcibly exiled from the land because of aggressive and persistent settler colonialism. We recognize that this place has a complex and layered history. As a community dedicated to creativity, MCAD is committed to ongoing efforts to support and advocate for American Indian Nations and peoples.


Nondiscrimination Policy

MCAD admits students of any race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, or marital status to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or marital status in the administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other school-administered programs.