51. Careers in the Arts: Who Stays and Who Leaves? SNAAP Special Report. Spring 2020
- Author
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Indiana University, Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, Frenette, Alexandre, and Dowd, Timothy J.
- Abstract
Arts school executives and faculty face the daunting, zero-sum challenge of packing more and better preparation into over-taxed academic calendars and saturated students: major requirements in a bachelor's or graduate degree track; professional and vocational preparation; internships; a liberal arts core curriculum; and second majors and minors, without neglecting the ever important extra-curricular activities that seem increasingly "co-curricular" and career-essential. How best to balance in the curriculum preparation for specialized, skill-heavy careers in highly competitive arts professions with the sort of educational preparation characteristic of a liberal arts curriculum that promises to prepare students for flexible, self-directed, adaptable career paths with the multiple episodes and pivots that have become so commonplace for this generation? What is most "foundational" in an undergraduate education in the arts and what skills and knowledge should be deferred to advanced study or the lessons of working life? Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey data provide abundant insights into this perennial dilemma of curriculum design. While this SNAAP Special Report does not address all of these questions, it sheds light on an important yet understudied question related to the challenge of preparing students for an artistic career: How do experiences during the postsecondary education of arts alumni combine with their early experiences working in arts-related industries to shape whether these graduates leave or stay in a career devoted to artistic work? [This report was written with contributions from Rachel Skaggs and Trent Ryan. It was produced with the Indiana University School of Education's Center for Postsecondary Research, The University of Texas at Austin's College of Fine Arts, and The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, & Public Policy at Vanderbilt.]
- Published
- 2020