No statistics were researched for this.
Deciding to go to college for an arts degree is extremely risky. Everyone has a different series of decisions that can lead to them to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on a degree that X% of graduates use to work in fields that are not in the arts, has Y% applying for postgraduate degrees in fields that not in the arts, and Z% are unemployed. Although there is a tremendous amount of craftsmanship that can be learned about any art form in four years of intensive training, the way a working artist interacts with commerce is widely different than the environment in which they train. While finance majors draft mock portfolios and wear suits to presentations, many artist presentations and exams take place in circles of stackable chairs, still sweaty from movement and wearing sweat pants.
We’re artists, we’re bubbly, we make jokes, and many of us are learning to play. It’s a time for expression, and a time to grow. At the same time, artists who train at 4-year colleges quickly and widely reach a point where they are not, or cannot, afford to support themselves with their art. From what we can see, many work at jobs that don’t relate, or train for different careers. Why?
The overwhelming amount of time and focus is dedicated to crafting and tools, relative to the market that artists are entering, which does not match your preparation. For other areas in a university, the curricula are designed and updated to fit the market. For arts, time is spent on passing down the tales of teachers old- the old wisdom, the teacher who threw clay next to Picasso or the one who hung up Chekhov’s coat at a dinner. If there is a trick to art, ancient knowledge, then how can children do it? How can Johnny Depp do what he does, or any on the list of strong artists with no formal training?
If it wasn’t possible to follow the market, understand how to create a profitable business model (or operate within one), or create a business of one, maybe this would be understandable. But we have all the tools to follow our industries and hit the ground running. Artists who are popular make more money- they are better businesses, and that doesn’t even correlate to whether or not they’re good. Can we pretend we think all celebrities deserve to be famous? Fame aside, the point is that being profitable and being good aren’t all that related. If that’s the case, the amount of time spent on studying this needs to increase. Why learn the acting industry was like in Russia in the mid to late 20th century as opposed to learning about what a studio deal is. What’s a rider? Instead, we learn about the past. Are we some kind of historic, Colonial Williamsburg-type group who gets together and recreates famous scenes from history together? Everyone else, all around us, is focused on what’s new, how to advance. College is investing millions of dollars into buying the best equipment for their students, so they are using the same tools they’ll use at their first jobs.
Why do the arts lag? Why is all the training so weighted down with understanding all the history? Are we historians, or do we want to enter the working world? We’re on this earth to progress, and it’s selfish to look at your life as an experiment, chasing emotional highs that your children cannot experience, but only watch your experience. To provide, you need money, and to make money you, by definition, must be profitable. Artists should be profitable. We should enter the workforce ready to have conversations about what’s going on right now. We should know the landscape, how the pieces move, and how to play ours well, not be fumbling in our pockets.
There is good news. All of this can be learned. It’s hard (and I understand now why people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get degrees in it) but if you focus on the right things, seek the right experiences, and continue to lean, you can learn the art of being an artist that I’m saying colleges neglect (or mine did). Learn to identify what it is that makes you want to work with someone, and identify that in multiple people. It takes time and attention, but after four years of having a schedule decided for you, you will soon realize that all you have is time and attention. It will get sucked up- you can get distracted, but just know that at all times, your time and attention is going somewhere. It is all you have, and you can build anything you want with it. Avoid people who are honest and quiet, call them losers, and all you will have for business partners are lying cheapskates who talk big game and bail on you. Chase expensive cars and late-night thrills, and you will spend all your money too early. Even if you get wealthy, you will get older and remember those nights. You will wish that money had gone to other places. You will still imagine all the things you could have with it, had you known its value at the time.
But if you put your attention to those around you, are courageous- if you throw yourself into the huge web of the working world with good intentions, you will be rewarded. You will be sounded by people who did the same, who took risks. You'll be surrounded by people who didn't just invest in themselves but went all in. Isn't that the best club to be in?
Commentaires