Of all the artsy types out there, very few actually take up art as a serious career and pursue art-related degrees like Fine Arts. Once they graduate, however, they might find themselves in a bit of a quandary as to what they do should do for work.
Fortunately, there are many art related careers for the artistic hand and the creative mind. Courtesy of Prospects, we bring you a few.
1. Art Therapist.
As an art therapist, you would use art as a medium to help people work through and solve their issues. Like with any career in the health sector, this is immensely rewarding and comes with an equally big responsibility.
Patients and clients do not need to be interested in, or good at art to partake in sessions. An art therapist simply uses art as a medium to instigate self-development and awareness, and by extension the working through of issues.
An art therapist may work with children, or adults, or people who have difficulty communicating verbally - permanently or temporarily. You can expect to work with all ages and backgrounds in a variety of settings like in public and private healthcare, drug and alcohol services, schools, prisons and hospices.
An art therapist, like any therapist has the job of providing a safe environment for his/her clients and therapy can be in the form of group or one-to-one sessions.
To become an art therapist you need training at the postgraduate level and you should, of course, be registered with your national health council or similar authority to be able to practice.
2. Print Maker
A print maker usually uses different techniques like woodcuts or silk-screens. They design and create the images themselves and create images which are then transposed onto surfaces. This is done using a printing press.
Print makers are now increasingly using electronic or digital printing processes along with traditional methods. This has led to collaborative working with computer artists.
Established print-makers may also teach and run classes to support themselves and finance their work, much like writers who must sometimes turn to teaching. They can also offer consultancy or advice to organizations.
3. Fine Artist
This may seem obvious, but someone who has pursued a fine arts degree could actually become a fine artist. As the name suggests, artists will create original works of art using a variety of media, and may specialize in two dimensional (painting), three dimensional (sculpture) or four dimensional work (moving images).
