Career as an Artist
Any person who loves to create beautiful paintings, drawings, art and crafts or sculptures can be called as an artist. Many of you have the talent of creating artistic things from childhood. An artist has all the talent in his hand and mind by which he creates a unique art which touches everyone's heart. Now-a-days, parents send their children to intermediate classes to learn the advanced techniques of art.
One should be updated with all the new technology of arts arising every day. There are many artists like crafters, commercial artists, cartoonists, art directors, police sketch artist, graphic designers, etc. Each of them requires some training and education to become perfect in their particular field. If you want to become a perfect artist in Missouri then following educational background is essential
Requirements: Crafters and fine artists don't need training but if experienced can benefit their profession. Along with degree, there are also individual courses of art available in colleges, independent art schools, community centers and universities. The course may include basic skills like glass blowing or drawing to special training like working on visualization. Some art schools provide education only for a particular career while other colleges of art provide studio education. Virtual artists have to create portfolios to display their best work demonstrate to potential employers or clients which includes groups of slides, physical collections or slides. With the help of post secondary courses in visual communications, an artist can learn the skills to develop portfolio design. Some of the college courses include developing portfolio before graduation. One can take a bachelor's degree which is of 4-years with a major in arts while multimedia artists or art directors require bachelor's degree in advertising and graphic design, and minor certificate in education followed by state licensing for teaching in public school. For teaching postsecondary courses one has to take Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA). There is also a Ph. D. program for working artist to become professional in this field.
Payment: Artists may work for extra hours to meet their deadlines and those are self-employed can set their own hours. As said by the report of Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2011, the average annual salary of artists in USA is $61,520 which has increased by 3.5%. In Missouri, there are around 280 artists working on an average salary of $62,460 yearly. As it is difficult to earn as a fine artist or craftsperson, many find a job related to art field. Artists can display their works at art galleries for additional income.
There are many colleges and art schools in Missouri which provide education and training on various forms of arts for gaining professionalism in this field
Bachelor's degree
- College of the Ozarks - Point Lookout
- Columbia College Columbia
- Kansas City Art Institute Kansas City
- Missouri State University-Springfield
- Missouri Western State University - Saint Joseph
- Park University Parkville
- Southeast Missouri State University - Cape Girardeau
- Southwest Baptist University Bolivar
Associate's degree
- East Central College Union
- Hickey College - Saint Louis
- ITT Technical Institute-Arnold
- ITT Technical Institute-Earth City
- Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley - Kansas City
- Sanford-Brown College - St Peters
- St Charles Community College Cottleville
Certificate
- East Central College Union
- South Central Career Center - West Plains
Employment of artists is expected to grow in Missouri in near future but it may be tough finding jobs as there are many people with talents who want to become an artist. Artists may need to have second job along with this to meet their financial needs.