Careers In The Arts

Music Teacher: The Life of a Music Teacher
Being a music teacher is not a "fall back" career. Music teachers used to be made up of people who were unable to make a living as performers. The newest generation of good music teachers are people who made the art and science of teaching music a priority over their own performing. Reach across the curriculum. Make an effort to connect your music teaching to whatever is going on in the regular classroom. Is your fourth grade studying the midwest region of the US in Social Studies? Then...

Drama Teacher: Life As AN ARtist/Instructor
Follow your heart/ Create your own work/ work within a community that is not New York or Chicago

Photographer: Snap! Click! Through the Looking Lens
Formal training will only get you so far. Sure, some school offer majors in photography and photojournalism, but they'll provide you mainly with textbook information (like how to use a darkroom and the mechanics of cameras) and a good photographer lives for hands-on experience. What you should aim for is getting an internship with an experienced/established photographer. From them, you can learn so, so much more and acquire some genuine hands-on field experience. In my internship, for example, I...

Museum Curator: Gallery Assistant
Always look cool and under control no matter how chaotic the day is. Do everything without being see. You are doing your best when the gallery is running and nobody knows how.

Jeweler: A Fun Way to make a Living
To become a jeweler is not an exceptionally hard thing to do, there are plenty of vocational schools across the United States (and world-wide) where you will learn everything you need to know to be successful. The job is great so long as you can find a comfortable and pleasant place to work. I would caution you from trying to work at larger retailers (Kay Jewelers, and the like) if you are in business for the artistic nature of the job. If becoming a jeweler is your plan, though, for purely mone...

Painter: This is Serious Stuff
Study, study, study! You may think that you need some intrinsic talent to be a painter, this is not so, all you need is patience and the pantheon of masters who have come before you. Immerse yourself in Da Vinci and then in Rembrandt; stare at Goya until you feel like you’re being devoured by Saturn; trace and copy everything you see of worth until you can do it without having to trace anymore.

Painter: The Joy of Painting
Just be yourself, that’s all it takes to be a successful artist. If you love to be creative, then painting is a great avenue to test yourself. Maybe it won’t be for you, that’s okay, some people just take to different arts. Oh, it’s a wonderful way to make a living or to just to make a hobby.