THE PROSPECTS OF STUDYING CREATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

“LIFE ISN’T ABOUT FINDING YOURSELF. LIFE IS ABOUT CREATING YOURSELF.” – GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

THE PROSPECTS OF STUDYING CREATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

PREAMBLE

The subject Creative Arts covers various aspects of human creative endeavours such as fine arts, applied arts, performing (or dramatic) arts, also known as theatre arts, and the popular soul of life which is music. For the purpose of this discuss, permit me to limit the scope of this education to visual arts. The three branches of visual arts are: fine art, applied art, and the functional art. In the basic post-primary school, the subject is creative arts and it is known to be visual arts in the senior secondary school curriculum in the Nigerian educational system. This is a subject that is exclusive to the gifted hands amongst our youngsters.

By a way of definition, visual arts is the creation and expression of what is beautiful as a result of up-stirring force or intuition in man, that enables the being to create, decorate, fashion things and express him/herself using certain media. It can also be defined generally as a means of self-expression of inner feelings or ideas about things using creative endowments of the mind and of the hand. Fine art comprises of natural handicrafts like drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture, while applied art delves into textile, batik, ceramics, graphics, photography, metal works and elements of printing technology.

Specifically students study visual arts for the following reasons:

1.      For communicating and expression of one’s self.

2.      Development of sense of creativity, imagination, self-thinking and hidden talents.

3.      It is central to all other subjects in form of illustrations.

4.      It projects good moral, reflects people’s way of life and cultural traits.

5.      It develops our sense of appreciation of both natural and artificial stuffs.

6.      It is also a sure aid to technological advancement.

7.      Art is also a viable means of livelihood in providing employment opportunities.

 THE PROSPECTS OF STUDYING CREATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

Every discipline has its own prospects but visual arts has greater prospect than them all. Some of these prospects are briefly enumerated below, which will be expanded further in subsequent publications.

Animators, ceramists, community art workers, fashion designers, fine artists, furniture designers, glass blowers/designers, graphics designers, interior decorators, graphics illustrators, jewelries’ designers, makeup artists, medical-illustrators, museum/gallery conservators, print-makers, textile designers, cartoonists, photographers, dancers, animation artists, product designers, theatre artists/film-makers, sign writers,  carvers, painters, sculptors, to mention just a few. There are other employment opportunities which include working with filmmakers, creative industries, media and publishing organizations, blogging, teaching, architecture, marketing, advertising, consultancy services, to mention a few.

There is also a discovery that almost seventy five percent of graduates in the field of visual arts are self-employed. Some art and design graduates choose to further study more on their respective discipline. Those in this field are about five percent in specialized areas related to their first degree discipline. Further research carried out in the area of Creative Art and Design graduate employment has this result that about three quarters (¾) of creative arts graduates become gainfully employed within the first six months after their graduation.

Future Destination of Graduates of Visual arts and Creative arts

We have the following data recently gotten from the Higher Education Statistics Agency of Nigeria about Visual Art graduates employment index.

Instant Employment             - (77.4 %)

Further Studies                     - (4.1 %)

Working and Studying         - (2.3 %)

Unemployment Ratio            - (11.4 %)

Other Category                     - (4.8 %)

Total                                       = 100 %

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency

The deduction from the data above shows that level of unemployment in the field of Creative Arts is very low compared to other discipline of human endeavour, except for Medicine and Law professions only.

Creativity is the bedrock of modern civilization, and the axis upon which modern technology rotates. It is good to be a creative thinker. Join the league of creative artists today. And it will leave you no regret.