On Wednesday, March 6, Creative Campus and the Career Center will host an event to address the specific needs of students pursuing careers in the arts.
“A huge number of majors on campus lend themselves to non-traditional career paths, and those students are often overlooked when it comes to professional training because people associate being a professional with wearing a suit and tie, and often creative jobs don’t look quite the same way,” Emma Fick, an intern with Creative Campus, said.
The Creative Career Fair will emphasize the ways in which students in the arts can prepare themselves for an unconventional career path.
“It’s also more difficult to give advice because there is no single answer, no single path, whereas most disciplines have a discrete number of professional options, so priming students for the professional world is much easier,” Fick said.
(See also “Creative Campus passes off event to HCA”)
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, there are 2.1 million artists working in the United States, and there are approximately 321,000 people working in arts nonprofits, according to the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Fick said those wishing to join their ranks need guidance.
“Those pursuing creative careers require a range of adaptable skill sets they can draw from as they carve their own unique path,” she said. “We hope the Creative Career Fair will provide students with some of those skill sets and get students real answers from real creative professionals.”
Many such professionals will advise students, including Ann Powers, National Public Radio music critic and correspondent, Rick Asherson, executive board member of the Alabama Blues Project, Sandy Wolfe, Tuscaloosa Arts Council director, John Miller, attorney, poet and professor of New College LifeTrack and Chloe Collins, executive director of the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Ala.
Students will have an opportunity to choose between one of four professional development workshops: Crafting a Creative Résumé, Delivering an Effective Elevator Speech, Budgeting for a Sustainable Arts Lifestyle and Choosing the Right Career for Your Personality.
Creative professionals will also discuss their careers and the necessary skill sets to work in creative occupations.
The Creative Career Fair will take place on March 6 from 6-8 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the Ferguson Center.
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