Nicholas Nieves
Special to In Motion
For students, choosing a degree and pursuing a career can be an exciting venture, but for those endeavoring in the Liberal Arts the future can be tinged with a looming feeling of anxiety.
According to a 2012 study conducted by Georgetown University, unemployment rates are considerably high for majors that are nontechnical, like the arts, at 9.4 percent compared to “money maker” areas such as health care and education that come in at a more reasonable 5.4 percent.
Despite of what some consider as overwhelming odds, many students still turn to theater, studio arts, journalism and music with a determined focus.
“I think that the arts are essential to everyone, because the world needs creativity. The arts connect to people in a way that more logical fields can’t,” said Amanda Melito, Daytona State College student and aspiring performer.
The “starving artist” syndrome has long plagued prospective undergraduates, causing them and employers to question the validity of investing time in what could be considered a money pit.
“They unfortunately frown upon the arts because it’s not, in their minds, ‘lucrative’ enough. What they don’t understand, non-liberal arts people, is that there’s just as much sense and logic wrapped into the arts as in the medical or educational fields,” said Melito.
Career success may be a primary driving force for college goers, but the pressure to make a stable, substantial paycheck can become overwhelming when majors of choice come under fire as being potentially unprofitable.
“Just being an ‘art’ student makes you feel ostracized from so many other people because they don’t understand that picking a degree isn’t just about future wealth,” Melito said.
Other numbers across the board paint a different picture, however, in a separate study conducted by The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy housed at Vanderbilt University between the years of 1990 and 2009. That survey revealed that of the 13,000 questioned almost 83 percent worked the majority of their time in some arts- related occupation.
In the job market, new opportunities are also arising for the imaginatively inclined. Professions like interpreting and translating, advertising sales representing and even market research analyzing have quickly gained ground in becoming go-to options.
“Some of the most progressive of corporations now look toward the arts for people who are creative. Creative manifests itself in, perhaps, a singular field but it may be transferable also too many other areas that might also include business or technology,” said Doug Peterson, Chair of Daytona State’s Mike Curb College of Music, Entertainment and Art.
The value of a degree in the arts does not solely lie in the potential of future success and the desire to make large quantities of money, although both can be draws. Rather, it is a combination of both, paired with a strong desire for self-expression.
“My journey through school was, aside from marrying my wife and my son being born, the most outstanding period of my life,” said Peterson , recalling his process of going through early life as a musician.
“And that’s because I pursued exactly what I passionately wanted to pursue. I wouldn’t exchange those years for anything in the world.”
It’s that same passion that dispels, for many aspiring creative types, the disillusion that getting a certification in the arts will somehow lead to imminent failure, something that in itself is priceless, say those who choose the path less traveled.
A case in point is outlined in the new Paul Rees biography of Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, whose parents tried to force him into a career in accounting. Once he landed the job, he lasted less than a week. His many years of trying and being rejected as a singer did not discourage him, even when the headmaster of his school declared he would never amount to anything.
Plant spent his first big paycheck on a Rolls-Royce, which he drove to his former school and upon seeing the headmaster outside, shouted out, “Remember me?”