Art Degrees
Like this graph? You can use it on your website.
Salaries For Degrees in Art
Those who majored in Art can work in a variety of occupations. While no one can say with certainty what you personally will do with a degree in Art, our survey panel picked the following occupations as likely options:
- Art directors (Best salary!)
- Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers
- Interior designers
- Graphic designers
- Multi-media artists and animators
- Set and exhibit designers
Salaries are highly dependent on individual negotiating skill, seniority in the field, policies at your employer, location, and more. The estimates we show on these pages are just that: estimates. Your individual experience will likely vary.
Where does this come from?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the US government, classifies all workers into some 800-odd occupational categories. We paid a team of freelancers to get their opinion on what type of degree a holder of each type of job would likely have majored in. For pairs which had a high degree of consensus, we created a link between the degree and the job.
From this, we calculated the average salary for Art degrees and converted it into a lifetime value. We then compared it against other degrees at the same level of schooling (such as associate's, bachelor's, or master's), so that you can make informed educational and employment decisions.
What do Art Students Learn?
You may have been considering pursuing an Art degree, but you aren't really sure where you should start or how to even go about getting one. Perhaps you are having trouble choosing between schools, deciding whether or not an Art degree is right for you, or deciphering whether or not an Art degree would be a waste of time. Instead of walking around with your head in the clouds, get a clear look at what an art degree is like, where you can get this particular degree, and find out about well known people that have studied Art in the past.
Studying art is educational, and at the same time, it is a very fun experience. You, as the student, can take away many things from studying art. You can expect to learn about all sorts of things such as the concept of color theory, different types of illustration and drawing, different mediums (charcoal, graphite, watercolor, etc.), different types of perspective, a little bit of art history, etc. If you want to study graphic design, you can expect to learn about the technological end of art. For example, you learn how to use image creation programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, how to build web pages, how to brand companies, etc. This type of art degree is more geared toward advertising and marketing. What you specifically learn depends on the type of art classes and degree you pursue. However, with all art degrees, you walk away knowing how to convey a an effective message, feeling or mood through illustration and creating images. While studying art, you also learn how to express yourself and help the viewer take something away from your art.
Schools Offering Accredited Online Art Degree Programs
You might be wondering where you'll be pursuing your art degree. Fortunately, you have the choice to take your courses and/or complete a program online at an accredited school. Going to school online can really help if you've got a busy schedule that you can't modify for school, or if you are too far from the school to attend locally. Either way, there are all sorts of online schools that you can attend that can help you make your future in art a reality. One art school that is very popular among people wanting to pursue art is The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online. There, you can learn all sorts of skills related to art, take flexible and enriching classes, and work your way towards an official art degree. This can all be done from the comfort of your own home. You also have choices such as the International Academy of Design & Technology which offers all sorts of classes and degrees to make your future with art a reality. At the International Academy of Design & Technology, you can take classes geared for graphic design, web design, web development and so much more through use of virtual classrooms.
Campus-based Colleges & Universities With Art Programs
Of course, you might be interested in taking your classes offline at a traditional school. Some of the most famous offline schools include Art Center College of Design, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Maine College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, The School of Visual Arts, etc. Of course, there are many well known and accredited offline schools available for you to choose from if you'd like a more direct relationship with instructors, learning, classmates, the campus and more.
Famous Artists
There are also many well known, famous people that have studied Art in the past. Some of them have gone on to get their Art degrees, and others just expressed interest in the field. Jane Campion, an extremely successful screenwriter and film maker, was a painting major at the Sydney College of Arts. She was one of the only four women ever nominated for the "Academy Award of Best Director." Don Cheadle, well known for his roles in Iron Man 2, Reign Over Me, Ocean's Twelve, Crash, and many other successful films and productions, studied Fine Arts and received a Bachelor of Arts at the California Institute of Arts. Of course, many people in television have studied art so that they could better their chances with their careers in acting, theatre and other fine arts. These are just a few out of the many people in the limelight that have studied art in the past and done exceptionally well with it.
