In the late 1990s, when Western countries experienced an urgent demand for arts management professionals and Taiwan's domestic cultural sector began to flourish with nascent awareness of arts administration, National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) took the pioneering step by establishing the Graduate Institute of Arts Management in 2001, officially admitting its inaugural class of students.

However, due to institutional restructuring across higher education, the Institute merged with the Department of Theatre Arts in the 2007 academic year, becoming the Master's Program in Arts Management under the Department of Theatre Arts, and subsequently renamed the Master's Program of the Department of Theatre Arts the following year. Throughout this merged period, the core pedagogy of arts management was steadfastly preserved: students mastered artistic production, marketing, and cultural governance, understanding that production is never solely the artist’s solitary practice, but requires audience engagement, public and private resources, grants, and strategic fundraising. The same applies across theatre, music, dance, visual arts, and museums—moving beyond elite fine arts to engage diverse cultural practices in everyday civic life. Hence, our guiding pedagogical ethos: 'Practice in society, implement in the community.'

Tracing our trajectory, NSYSU has cultivated academic and professional excellence in arts management for more than two decades. Despite organizational reconfigurations, our alumni have achieved prominent distinction across academia, public cultural institutions, and creative industries. Over these two decades, arts management in Taiwan has matured from an emerging discipline into a robust academic field and essential cultural profession, mirrored by leading global universities worldwide. In response to the surging demand for cultural leadership, the Ministry of Education officially approved the re-establishment of the Graduate Institute of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship (GIAEM) in the 2021 academic year, embarking on a dynamic new chapter.