A recent survey by The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, based at Indiana University, found that 92 percent of arts graduates who want to work are doing so. More than half – 57 percent – are either currently working professionally in the field or have done so in the past. Only six percent reported being currently unemployed.
The details, however, reveal a typically busy lifestyle for arts professionals with 57 percent holding down two jobs currently and another 18 percent working three or more jobs.
On the upside, 54 percent of those working solely outside the arts at the current time said their arts training was relevant to their job. And 71 percent not professionally active now continue to make or publicly perform their art.
Although not a random sample, the sample size was robust with 13,581 alumni from 154 institutions responding to the online survey. The 2010 wave is the most recent in what has become an annual survey.