LibGuides: Visual Arts: Careers in Visual Arts

Why study art in high school?

9 reasons to study art at high school
This article explains how studying art can enhance, not hinder, your job prospects when you finish school. New technologies need more and more designers, and social media allows artists to market their work to a huge audience.
The art career project
This American website describes what's involved in different art careers. There are also stories from arts professionals.

Graduate Success stories from Digital Arts magazine

Here are some first-hand stories of how graphic design graduates and film graduates have become successful in the Creative industry. Digital Arts Magazine is British, so you may not have heard of the Tertiary institutions they mention!

Freelance Illustrator: Jacob Stead
Motion Designer : Martin Craster
Motion Designers do a graphic design degree, but instead of creating one dimensional designs (on paper) they create designs for moving image (films, TV shows, music videos).
Motion designer : Natalie Suthons
Compisitor : Oliver Caiden
A Compositor ensures the final version of a film looks right, by adding layers such as special effects.

Australian Council for the Arts: Artist Careers Research

Here is a visual summary of the findings from the Arts Council's 2010 study into artists and their careers.

Creating a Market Stall

You can start getting your art 'out there' at an artisans/craft market. Craft and art overlap at some of the trendier markets.

Bend and Snap
Bend and Snap is a market for local talented creatives such as illustrators, fashion designers, jewelers and textile artists.

Getting your Arts idea funded

Pozible
Pozible is a crowdfunding website which links artists/musicians/charities/anyone who have a creative idea with possible donors on the internet. If you want to have your own physical or virtual exhibition, why not create a Pozible project and get funded?!

Marketing your art

Dropr
Dropr is a social networking tool where you can create your own online art portfolio. It allows you to upload images, video, music, text and even intreactive art.
You can also get inspired by other Dropr's.
The loop
The loop is an online repository of artists showcasing their work. Buyers can find and buy works from this website, a way that technology is taking away the expense of renting a physical gallery to display their work.
The loop : portfolios
Click on the 'Portfolios' tab to view the huge list of jobs available to you in the creative industry.

Jobs in Visual Arts

Get an idea of where your art study could take you by looking at the job descriptions in the following websites.