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Matthew Kratz was excited when he found out ‘Nostalgia Consumption’ was one of the approaches he and his group could take on their second-semester marketing assignment. The second-year MBA student had already thought a lot about the power of nostalgia in his work as an artist. And that made it easy for him to convince his group to take a deep dive into how advertisers use nostalgia to influence consumers and build brand loyalty.

Whether it is painting, printmaking, photography, or animation and AI, Kratz has always been captivated by the intersection of art and technology, and how it can evoke emotions. During his undergraduate degree he went to great lengths to create fake photographs of the Moon, first by building a set, and then by working with lights to get the desired effects. The results are something he’s still very proud of.

Kratz’s art comes from his family

Originally from Calgary, Kratz was introduced to the arts at a young age, learning to paint from his grandfather when he was just eight years old. Kratz says his mother, a talented craft maker, “pretty much had a hand in a ton of [his] projects throughout [his] life”.

First achieving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alberta University of the Arts in 2019, he then took his painting professor’s advice and moved to Halifax to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at NSCAD University. Kratz describes NSCAD as the place where he made plenty of paintings and short films and developed his own method of printmaking, which was also the primary focus of his thesis The Least Nostalgic.

Since receiving his MFA in 2022, Kratz has worked with the Prismatic Arts Festival, a multidisciplinary arts festival featuring Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across Canada, and completed a video and projection design apprenticeship at Neptune Theatre in Halifax. He also joined and is now the Vice Chair of the board of Nocturne, a contemporary arts festival taking place in multiple venues across the Halifax Regional Municipality each November.

Blending arts with business skills

As he enters his second year, Kratz can already see how the MBA is informing contribution to the arts. He explains it like this: "Doing an MBA is a more versatile extension of arts as it provides a lot of opportunities and skills that really help you in the arts world, like administration and entrepreneurship. I just feel better about what I can do and how I can help people and artists out. It has also changed the way I think about language, really helping me with Nocturne as we find how to talk about ourselves and our mission.”

During the corporate residency of the MBA program, Kratz has been building informational newsletters and videos as a Procure to Pay Analyst for Dalhousie’s Financial Services. His unique solutions to the challenges presented to him have earned him recognition. Members of that team have told him it’s opened their eyes to the benefit of hiring people from different professional backgrounds.

Optimistic about the opportunities ahead of him, Kratz says, “what I want to achieve with this MBA is a driving force to embrace alternatives to how we measure success, especially when it comes to arts and culture initiatives. I’m interested in creating my own ventures and initiatives to bridge those gaps.”