There’s growing conversation among conservatories and other arts-focused degree programs in higher education about what it is they’re actually preparing students to do. The unspoken assumption has often been that music, theater, and related degrees are intended to develop artists of high technical excellence, prepared (at least technically) for professional work as artists.
Of course, many more students graduate from these programs than could ever find employment in the cultural world. And, in fact, many enter such programs not to become professionals, but to immerse themselves in an endeavor that they love.
To learn more about the outcomes of arts training programs, including conservatories in higher education, the Surdna Foundation just launched a new research initiative, the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). Says the report web site:
Arts alumni who graduated 5, 10, 15 and 20 years earlier will provide information about their formal arts training. They will report the nature of their current arts involvement, reflect on the relevance of arts training to their work and further education, and describe turning points, obstacles, and key relationships and opportunities that influenced their lives and careers.
The effort should yield intriguing results, certainly useful results for any arts training program that wants to bring clarity and intent to its work.
Working in the arts performance field and having many artists friends, musicians, actors, I am always surprised to see a major lack in the artists cursus in the professionlization of their art. No Music Academy I know teach music rights management, being a freelance contractor, contracts, basic accounting or career development. I think it is a shame as these students will hit the working place with absolutelly no knowlegde of the business they will be working in. They rarely will have an agent in the first years or never will. At least, they should be taught how music rights work, it is a minimum.
As an arts attorney I hear on a regular basis, from professional artists, that a major gap in arts education is preparation for the legal and business aspects of their career. Occasional lectures are not enough. Institutions need to make real commitments to this critical aspect of professional preparation.
I am thrilled that this study is finally being done, and I hope that the results help conservatories and music schools take action to integrate classes about the nonprofit arts and entertainment industries into their core curricula. Musicians, artists, and dancers need a more comprehensive skill set that will support them throughout their long careers.
I hold a degree in instrumental music education, and have taught public school band/orchestra for 35 years. Here in the midwest, my salary is near 80K for a 9 month contract, with a pension plan and health insurance. I also hold 2 masters degrees: MusEd, and Arts Management. I considered a performance degree, but did not want a life long struggle in regards to a lack of a good pension plan or health insurance for myself and family. Being a (union) public school teacher, once tenuered, is security. Private and charter schools, and being a professional gigging musician, is just not secure. Although, playing a gig and picking up some pocket change on weekends, if fun to do with family and life-long friends.
Quick question on a sort of sidetrack: if the U.S.A. had universal health care wouldn’t that make it much easier for people to pursue careers as artists? Is that not a bigger obstacle than university training in legal and business aspects of the arts?
Most students leave their music education with little knowledge of the music business because most of their professors have had no experience with it. Their instructors liked playing music as children, went to college, went for a Master’s, got a doctorate, graduated and got jobs at different colleges. They are now teaching music, but were never really working musicians. Granted, there are exceptions, but as more schools require doctorates, the people who really know about the music world aren’t qualified to teach it in the academy. College faculty never needed to understand business issues, so why/how should they teach it?
If you go to a really fancy conservatory and study privately with a major orchestral player, they don’t know anything about what to tell you, because they graduated from school and ended up in an orchestra where they show up for rehearsals and concerts and don’t ever deal with the issues that face people who don’t have full-time orchestra gigs. Some of the piano faculty may have some clue if you want to be on the contest circuit, but that would be about it.