Art Major Students: A Straightforward Guide to Success

Are you inter­est­ed in the arts? Have you con­sid­ered pur­su­ing an arts degree? Are you already an art major student?

Think of this arti­cle as your guide to pro­vide you, the art major or prospec­tive art major, with valu­able insights and prac­ti­cal advice. Our goal is to help art major stu­dents like you make best of their aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney and get a good start in their career. As such, this guide will cov­er every­thing you need to know to be suc­cess­ful in your cre­ative major.

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First, Choose Your Path Within the Arts

Reflect on your passion and interests

Before declar­ing a major, take the time to ask your­self: What do I like about the arts?

Is it music? The­ater? Visu­al Arts? Some­thing else?

Take time to explore your pas­sions. Start by immers­ing your­self in var­i­ous forms of artis­tic expres­sion. Attend gallery exhi­bi­tions. Lis­ten to var­i­ous kinds of music. Take note of what moves you. Write down the spe­cif­ic sub­jects that cap­ture your attention.

Ask your­self prob­ing ques­tions like:

• What dri­ves you?
• What excites you?
• What res­onates with your values?
• What cre­ative out­lets bring you joy?

Through this process of intro­spec­tion, you will find answers. Per­haps you’ll decide you want to focus on one or two of the fol­low­ing areas.

• Fine Arts
• Graph­ic Design
• Art His­to­ry and Theory
• Stu­dio Arts
• Film and Media Studies
• Pho­tog­ra­phy
• Music
• Dance
• The­ater Arts
• Lit­er­a­ture and Cre­ative Writing

Explore interdisciplinary options

Many arts pro­grams offer inter­dis­ci­pli­nary majors that com­bine var­i­ous art dis­ci­plines. If you are torn between pho­tog­ra­phy and stu­dio arts, why not study both? At many schools, you can. There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties to cus­tomize your own arts program.

Research career paths

An arts degree offers ver­sa­til­i­ty, but it’s impor­tant to con­sid­er your long-term career goals. Research poten­tial career paths asso­ci­at­ed with spe­cif­ic majors. Take a good look at the skills that are required in those fields. Research dif­fer­ent arts fields and look specif­i­cal­ly for:

• Indus­try trends
• Job prospects
• Salary poten­tial

How do you start research­ing? You found this arti­cle, so you’re already a good researcher.

Start with Google! Look up your career path plus words like “tes­ti­mo­ni­als” or “pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions.” Don’t rush your research. You don’t have to decide what you’re going to do for the rest of your life today.

Second, Set Yourself Up for Academic Success

Start with the basics

You’ll need to estab­lish a good foun­da­tion. The basics include your cho­sen major’s fun­da­men­tal con­cepts, the­o­ries, and his­tor­i­cal con­text. For exam­ple, if you’re a fine arts major who is focus­ing on draw­ing, your basics will be cours­es such as:

• Draw­ing Fundamentals
• Art His­to­ry Survey
• Two-Dimen­sion­al Design

Each major includes a set of core class­es that every stu­dent must take at the begin­ning of the program.

Then add the extras

Don’t shy away from explor­ing cours­es out­side your com­fort zone. Tak­ing elec­tives that you may not have con­sid­ered is part of the joy of being a col­lege student.

Let’s say your major is Film and Media Stud­ies, but you have always been inter­est­ed in cre­ative writ­ing. Cre­ative writ­ing isn’t part of your core class­es, but guess what? You can add it as an elec­tive, and you may find a new pas­sion that way. Diver­si­fy­ing your course­work will broad­en your per­spec­tive and enhance your crit­i­cal think­ing skills.

Speaking of critical thinking skills…

Crit­i­cal think­ing is a cor­ner­stone of suc­cess in the arts. Chal­lenge your­self to think crit­i­cal­ly about lit­er­a­ture, art, his­to­ry, phi­los­o­phy. What does this look like in action? For starters, engage in class dis­cus­sions. Ques­tion assump­tions about cer­tain top­ics. Ques­tion­ing everything!

Prac­tice eval­u­at­ing sources for their cred­i­bil­i­ty and author­i­ty. Work on devel­op­ing an abil­i­ty to ana­lyze infor­ma­tion from var­i­ous points of view. These skills are not just for aca­d­e­mics. They will serve you well beyond your col­lege experience.

Don’t Forget Extracurriculars

Join arts organizations

Most uni­ver­si­ties offer learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties beyond the class­room through extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties. Join­ing groups that align with your inter­ests is impor­tant for mul­ti­ple reasons.

• You will col­lab­o­rate with like-mind­ed people.
• You will have oppor­tu­ni­ties to attend events that you may not know about otherwise.
• You will gain prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence that will look good on your resume.

Join­ing arts orga­ni­za­tions also helps you build con­fi­dence in your craft and gives you a place to show­case your work.

Participate in internships and workshops

The point of intern­ships is to gain “real-life” expe­ri­ence. If you have this oppor­tu­ni­ty, go for it. Work­shops can also enhance your skills and pro­vide valu­able net­work­ing opportunities.

Attend conferences and events

Stay updat­ed on indus­try trends and aca­d­e­m­ic devel­op­ments by attend­ing con­fer­ences and events relat­ed to your field. Dur­ing these events, you’ll find net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and dis­cov­er ideas for col­lab­o­ra­tion. Con­fer­ences and events are good ways to gain insight into spe­cif­ic poten­tial career paths.

Networking and Mentorship

Connect with faculty

Build rela­tion­ships with pro­fes­sors and advi­sors. They can offer guid­ance and valu­able rec­om­men­da­tions. Estab­lish­ing a con­nec­tion with fac­ul­ty mem­bers can lead to pos­i­tive out­comes in your future, espe­cial­ly when you are look­ing for a job.

Connect with peers

Don’t under­es­ti­mate the rela­tion­ships with your class­mates. Your fel­low stu­dents are valu­able resources. Think about how you can form study groups or work on projects togeth­er. Build­ing a strong net­work with­in your aca­d­e­m­ic cir­cle cre­ates a sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment and can open doors to future opportunities.

Preparing For Your Career

Develop transferable skills

Focus on trans­fer­able skills that are in high demand across var­i­ous dis­ci­plines. These include (but are not lim­it­ed to):

• Strong com­mu­ni­ca­tion
• Crit­i­cal thinking
• Prob­lem-solv­ing
• Col­lab­o­ra­tion
• Adapt­abil­i­ty
• Cre­ativ­i­ty

Devel­op­ing these skills will make you mar­ketable in a large range of careers. That’s not all, though. These skills enrich your own per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth as an arts major.

Work on a professional portfolio

Dur­ing your arts bachelor’s pro­gram, you will need to assem­ble a port­fo­lio that show­cas­es your best work. The type of work you assem­ble depends on your spe­cif­ic major, but it could include research papers, art­work, or per­for­mances. A pro­fes­sion­al port­fo­lio is valu­able when apply­ing for jobs, intern­ships, or grad­u­ate pro­grams. Con­sid­er your port­fo­lio a work-in-progress. You can update it to high­light your growth in the arts industry.

Seek internship opportunities

We have already touched on intern­ships, but they are so impor­tant that we will men­tion them again. Intern­ships are valu­able because they pro­vide hands-on expe­ri­ence and expo­sure to poten­tial career paths. Seek out intern­ships that align with your inter­ests and career goals. Intern­ships offer prac­ti­cal skills, but they also give you the chance to net­work and build a pro­fes­sion­al reputation.

It Comes Down to Balance

Mental health matters

As an arts major, you may think of your­self as jug­gling many tasks. The truth is, that’s exact­ly what you are doing. The demands can be chal­leng­ing, and that’s why it’s essen­tial to pri­or­i­tize your men­tal health. Estab­lish healthy study habits, take breaks, and if you’re feel­ing over­whelmed, seek help. Many uni­ver­si­ties offer coun­sel­ing ser­vices and resources to help stu­dents man­age stress.

Work on a balanced lifestyle

We say “work on” a bal­anced lifestyle because no one does this per­fect­ly, and per­fec­tion isn’t what we are after any­way. A bal­anced lifestyle means you don’t just spend all your time on your aca­d­e­mics. Also, don’t just spend all your time on your social life. Bal­ance the two. Add fun hob­bies and exer­cise to fill in any gaps.

FAQS

What can I do with an arts degree?

There’s no lim­it to what you can do with an arts degree. This degree offers valu­able skills that trans­fer to many areas. Poten­tial careers will depend on the type of arts degree you earn.

Most arts grad­u­ates seek out careers in cre­ative indus­tries, such as the following:

• Visu­al arts
• Graph­ic design
• Adver­tis­ing
• Pub­lish­ing
• Film and media
• Gallery artists
• Art teach­ers
• Free­lance designers
• Edu­ca­tion
• Jour­nal­ism
• Pub­lic relations
• Non­prof­it organizations

Some arts grad­u­ates use their cre­ativ­i­ty to pur­sue their own busi­ness­es. Oth­ers link their degree to anoth­er field such as psy­chol­o­gy or human resources. Final­ly, those with a bachelor’s in arts can be well equipped to pur­sue a grad­u­ate degree.

What type of skills are best for an arts major?

Cre­ativ­i­ty is at the heart of most art majors. How­ev­er, that’s not the only skill that an art major will devel­op over the course of their aca­d­e­m­ic studies.

Crit­i­cal think­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are also valu­able skills. When you can start ask­ing ques­tions and exam­in­ing issues from mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives, you become a crit­i­cal thinker. Strong writ­ten and ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills are also nec­es­sary. As a strong com­mu­ni­ca­tor in an arts pro­gram, you will enhance your abil­i­ty to express your­self and strength­en your capac­i­ty to con­nect with others.

How much can I make with an arts degree?

The earn­ing poten­tial for those with an arts degree can vary wide­ly depend­ing on fac­tors like:

• Spe­cial­iza­tion
• Indus­try
• Expe­ri­ence
• Geo­graph­i­cal location

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics gives some indi­ca­tion of salary poten­tial in arts-relat­ed careers. The lat­est data reports that the medi­an annu­al wages for arts and design careers was $51,150 (May 2022).

Spe­cif­ic earn­ings will vary depend­ing on the cho­sen field with­in the arts. For exam­ple, artists and relat­ed work­ers earned a medi­an salary of $53,000 in 2022, while graph­ic design­ers earned around $58,000.

Those with advanced degrees or spe­cial­ized skills can earn high­er salaries. Free­lanc­ing and self-employ­ment are com­mon in the arts fields, offer­ing the poten­tial for flex­i­ble work and mul­ti­ple income streams.

Pur­su­ing a career in the arts can be finan­cial­ly reward­ing when you con­sid­er the diverse range of oppor­tu­ni­ties in this field.

How long does it take to get an arts degree?

The length of time it takes to earn an arts degree depends on dif­fer­ent fac­tors like:

• The spe­cif­ic bachelor’s program
• The aca­d­e­m­ic requirements
• Whether you are a full-time or part-time student

If you are a full time stu­dent, you can expect that the aver­age bachelor’s degree in the arts will take around four years. Most bachelor’s degrees are approx­i­mate­ly 120 cred­it hours. Some pro­grams offer accel­er­at­ed options or allow stu­dents to trans­fer cred­its from pri­or course­work or expe­ri­ences, which may short­en the time to earn the degree.

Ulti­mate­ly, the length of time depends on each student’s aca­d­e­m­ic goals, com­mit­ments, and pace of study.

Can I get an arts degree online?

Yes, you can earn an arts degree online, and more uni­ver­si­ties than ever are offer­ing them. Online degree pro­grams in var­i­ous fields of the arts include:

• Fine arts
• Graph­ic design
• Art his­to­ry
• Music
• Cre­ative writing

These online pro­grams pro­vide flex­i­bil­i­ty for stu­dents who may have work or fam­i­ly com­mit­ments that pre­vent them from attend­ing tra­di­tion­al on-cam­pus class­es. Online arts degrees typ­i­cal­ly include a com­bi­na­tion of:

• Vir­tu­al lectures
• Dis­cus­sion forums
• Inter­ac­tive assignments
• Mul­ti­me­dia resources

If you want a bach­e­lor of arts degree but feel like you can’t take your class­es in per­son, don’t let that deter you. There are some fab­u­lous online bach­e­lor of arts degrees out there.