Budgeting for Exhibitions and Art Organizations

One-time Payment

189.00 € (incl. VAT)

Live sessions

2 hrs/week

This course focuses on the most important tool for managing finances in arts projects and organizations: the budget. Designed for arts professionals—whether you’re an independent curator launching an exhibition or already handling budgets in an art institution—you’ll acquire the skills to budget effectively.

Over five weeks, you will learn how to work with the two main types of budgets: general and project. To ensure your projects stay on track, you will also discover strategies to develop financial indicators and deal with unexpected budget changes. After the course, you will have the know-how and tools to draft, plan, and control budgets at all stages, from planning to execution.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Draft, plan, and control both general and project-specific budgets.
Monitor your project’s progress and manage its financial health.
Navigate budget discrepancies with confidence.
Keep your finances clear, organized, and under control.

Who is this Course for?

No prior knowledge is required, though experience working in or with arts organizations can be beneficial. A basic understanding of spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Google Sheets, is recommended.

How it works

Each week combines expert-led sessions with individual or group activities. Optional assignments and additional materials, including budget templates are provided for you to use in your professional work. Collaborative exercises will be conducted using Miro, an online whiteboard tool. No prior experience is needed, but we recommend exploring it briefly beforehand here.

Image credits: rc.xyz NFT gallery via Unsplash

Session 1. Introduction

This session introduces you to how finances work in arts projects and organizations.

● Introduction to budgeting, accounting, controlling, and funding

● Types of financial budgets (general, project, non-financial budgets)

Session 2. The Project Budget: Bringing Your Visions to Reality

This session introduces you to project budgets and how to build and draft them—whether you’re working on an art exhibition, a festival, or another creative event. This session includes free-to-use templates for exhibitions and events that you can adapt to your projects.

● Purpose, function, and structure of the Project Budget

● Building the Project Budget: defining costs and income positions

● Drafting a Project Budget

● The essentials of Exhibition Budgets: common categories, and best practices.

Session 3. Planning a Project Budget for Grant Applications

A Project Budget is not only necessary for producing a project but also for winning grant applications. This session equips you with the skills to adapt project budgets to apply for grants.

The Project Budget as part of the grant application process
Aligning the Budget to the grantee’s requirements

Session 4. The General Budget: Keeping Things Running

In this session, you will understand how project budgets contribute to a general budget and explore the key components of a general budget for arts ventures, from project spaces to independent curating. You will learn to review expenses, revenues, and contingencies, and understand the big picture for better decision-making. We will work with a real budget template that you can adapt for your freelance work or business planning.

Purpose, function, and structure of the General Budget
Understanding and analyzing a General Budget
Hierarchy of budgets (for example for divisions, departments, or teams)
General Budget components (for example, salaries, building maintenance, administrative costs, etc.)

Session 5. Planning and Controlling

Budgets are flexible documents that will change as your project progresses. In this session, you will learn how to create a long-term plan, adapt a budget over time, and develop indicators informing you about your budget’s health. As project budgets are usually short-term, we will continue working with the General Budget example from Week 4.

Planning and adapting the General Budget
Budget controlling and reporting

Language
Classes are held in English.
Format & Modality
The course is fully online and taught live via Zoom in small, interactive groups to support active learning. Live captioning is available during the sessions.
Schedule
Live sessions take place every (Day) from (Time) (Berlin time, CEST).
Attendance
Live attendance is encouraged to get the most out of the course, but recordings are available if you cannot attend a session.

Course Materials
All course materials—including recordings, readings, and presentations—are available on the Node platform for as long as you wish.
Assignments
Optional assignments are included, with personal feedback from the lecturers to help you apply what you learn. Please note that feedback is provided only during the course dates.
Certificate
A downloadable certificate is available upon course completion.
Technical Requirements
A stable internet connection, a computer with a camera and microphone, and access to Zoom are required.
Questions?
Check our FAQ or contact us via our online form.