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Visual and Performing Arts
Graduates of visual and performing arts programs are in more demand than you might think. While images of Andy Warhol’s soup cans and Broadway’s latest star may come to mind, everyday industries like marketing and publishing need arts graduates, and accordingly top universities around the world have taken note.
What are the visual and performing arts?
The visual arts are exactly what their category depicts – the conceptualization and execution of visible work. An undergraduate university degree in the visual arts may include photography, drawing, painting, filmmaking, and graphic design. Visual arts are sometimes called fine arts and many top universities group the study of such works under this category.
The Performing Arts manifest themselves in a vast array of forms: acrobatics, dance, mime, forms of conceptual art, singing, acting, and circus acts like juggling are a few of the many forms of Performing Arts one can become involved in. The Performing Arts are unique, in that many people who participate in these ‘performances’ aren’t performers. Songwriters, theatre set decorators, scriptwriters, and many other professionals often work together to create an ‘act’, so if you’re not an innate performer there are still numerous career opportunities in this field that can ensue from an undergraduate university degree in this field.
Are visual and performing arts for me?
You will definitely be creative – possibly in one specific way like conceptualizing elaborate theatre sets; or in many ways - you may be a talented sketch artist, painter, clothing designer, and pottery-maker if you are exceptionally talented and purely focused on a life rich of imagination. You may just think differently to how the rest of ‘normal’ society thinks, and therefore look for an outlet to express your imaginative soul.
People wanting to study an undergraduate degree in the visual and performing arts realm most often are interested in the ‘big picture’ - how everything from science to trees to religion can connect, for example. Many are visionaries who through pure thinking conceptualize entirely new ways of creating prints, t-shirts, or buildings.
The bottom line is that if you are a creative type, you know it, and will probably excel in a program related to fine arts. You will most likely have an interest in the liberal arts and social science disciplines like psychology, sociology, history, political science, or anthropology, to name a few. Being educated in such subjects can only fuel inspiration and create bases for projects driven by such topics.
What courses are available?
A lot! Pratt Institute, Parsons New School for Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts are some of the world’s most renowned art schools, and are all based in New York. Other famous schools include Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, in London; Art Institute of Chicago, California Institute of the Arts, and Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, in Paris.
Of course you may not expect to apply to one of these schools. The good news is that top universities around the world welcome visual and performing arts students with open arms.
The University of Essex, for example, offers a good number of specialist undergraduate degrees in the visual and performing arts. The school’s Bachelor’s programs in Physical Theatre, Design for Contemporary Performance, Technical Theatre Studies, and Acting are a few examples of choices the Arts student at Essex can make. One very unique and ambitious course which leads to an FdA (similar to an Associate’s degree) is Essex’s Specialist Performance Skills (Stage Combat) Program. For those looking to learn stage stunts worthy of a breathless audience need to look no further.
Students interested in the world of fashion and fashion design will find a very impressive collection of choices of undergraduate programs at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Bachelor programs in Fabric Styling, Advertising Design, Home Products Development, Interior Design, Toy Design, Accessories Design, and Visual Art Management kick off the countless programs at the famous FIT. But competition can be fierce. Research the school’s requirements and put the perfect touches on your portfolio.
What are the career prospects for visual and performing arts graduates?
Students that graduate with an undergraduate degree in the visual and performing arts very often have a clear picture of the career path they want to take. As a very extraordinary example, Beethoven gave his first public performance at the age of 7 and shortly after was deemed the next Mozart by many critics.
But don’t worry, a lot of art students do not have their career all planned out, which can be even more exciting. The workforce is in need of an increasing number of creative types – from graphic designers to create logos for the newest soft drinks to stage performers to replace aging Cirque du Soleil performers. Top universities around the world have taken note of the creative boom and are continuously developing new programs to ensure the rest of us are entertained.
