The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) in the US has just released its report on Career Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for Artists. Based on survey of over 26,000 arts alumni of all ages with undergraduate or graduate level degrees, from 43 US institutions, the report stresses the importance of including business and entrepreneurship skills in arts curricula.
SNAAP Director Sally Gaskill said, “More emphasis is needed within the curriculum on developing key career skills, including finance, business and entrepreneurship, so that arts graduates not only can create art but can also successfully manage their careers.”
SNAAP reports that alumni said that they would have benefited from: knowing more about how to market and promote their work (91%); from more financial management skills (84%) or from how to monitor legal and tax issues (84%)
The report also presents disciplinary differences in the extent to which coursework included innovative problem solving and broad career options both inside and outside of the arts, and analysed alumni confidence levels.
SNAAP is a collaboration between the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and the Indiana University School of Education.
The full report is available at: http://snaap.indiana.edu/pdf/special_report/SNAAP_SpecialReport_2017.pdf
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