Art School Confidential

Wednesday August 25th, 2010

“Remember,” wrote Daniel Clowes in his great comic Art School Confidential, “the only piece of paper less valuable than one of your paintings is a B.F.A. degree.”

As Bloomberg Business Week recently reported, this lesson has become a reality for many students of for-profit art schools, which demand a high tuition with no guarantee of employment. One student featured in the article, Carianne Howard, has been unable to find a job with her degree in video game design—so she earns her living dancing at a strip club. Howard’s school, the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, is part-owned by Goldman Sachs, and her bachelor’s degree in game art and design cost $70,000.

One of the many career choices for today's graduate. (Photo by Roger Hagadone/New York)

These dilemmas are likely to grow for many students; according to the National Center of Education Statistics, there were 87,703 graduates in the visual and performing arts in the year 2007-08, up from 30,394 in 1970-71. Compare this to 68,676 graduates in engineering for 2008.

The volume of art school graduates is something of a new phenomenon, according to the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), a non-profit consortium of 36 art schools. AICAD explains that “until shortly after World War II, going to college was unusual in most visual art fields. Artists and designers were often self-trained or educated through apprenticeships and on-the-job training.” However, they go on to point out that due to “the current complexity of our society and of the art and design fields, the expectations of employers and art venues, and the increasing competition from college-educated students for employment positions,” a professional degree is becoming a requirement for a career in the arts.

As these numbers rise, the market for graduates in these fields is somewhat ambiguous. Though the Bureau for Labor Statistics (BLS) expects employment in artistic fields to grow by 12 percent, this reflects the average for all occupations. “Competition,” warns the BLS “for jobs as artists and related workers will be keen because there are more qualified candidates than available jobs.”

Though 60% of working artists are self-employed, the majority of artists work as art directors (84,200 out of 221,900 total in 2008), with a significant number of the rest in advertising.

At least photography school has darkrooms. (Photo by Billy Delfs/Cleveland)

The BLS sees a similar story for photographers, with growth in employment mirroring the average and a high rate of self-employment. They add that there is likely to be great competition because “the work is attractive to many people,” and point out that while the internet and related media have increased the demand for photography (as well as the ability of photographers to access potential clients), the lower barriers to entry have significantly increased the competition—a condition only exacerbated by the decline in the newspaper and magazine industry.

What was your education, and how has it served you? Let us know in the comments.

-Asad Haider