Arts Careers After the Pandemic - What Are Your Best Options?

By Laurie Higgins

ike many other industries, the arts industry took a beating during the pandemic. Theaters and concert venues were shut down, and any sort of collaborative art was possible only through virtual means. However, one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic showed us just how essential the arts can be in our lives. Being forced to go without them showed us all just how much we could miss the arts. Now, as things slowly open back up, the arts can serve as a way to connect us like never before.

“I think that when we look at where we are right now and the problems we face as a society, we’re always looking for interventions that can help build community and bring people together, ‘’ says Jen Guillemin, a consultant at ArtsBridge in Boston.

Will the arts ever look the same as they did before the pandemic? Probably not. But now that the arts are coming back in full force, where can we expect to see new job growth? How will the arts continue to grow and change, and what are the careers now worth pursuing?

TeenLife asked Guillemin and Amy Golden – the founder of College Options in the Performing Arts (COPA) in New York – to help answer these questions.

Here are their predictions for which artistic career areas to keep an eye on after the pandemic!

ART THERAPY

Art therapies cover many different disciplines, such as music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, and traditional art therapy. Art therapists use a number of different methods to help their clients with a number of psychological issues.

“There are master’s programs and they are certified, so these are bona-fide professions that are growing,” Goldin says. “I think the therapies are going to grow because it’s going to take a long time for people to recover from this pandemic.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL ART

Historically, artists of all kinds have had an entrepreneurial streak in some way. However, today, visual artists can start their own Etsy shop or use their social media to drive traffic to their work, offering opportunities that artists just a couple of decades ago could never have imagined. Musicians and performing artists also have options: they can start their own YouTube channels or find an audience on TikTok.

TECHNOLOGY AND ART

The intersection of technology and art was a growing field that the pandemic broke wide open, and our experts don’t think it will go away when the pandemic is over. Music classes can now require the use of technology to synchronize performances and collaborate in new ways, and actors now have the ability to set up their own audition reels and learn about lighting and editing. These innovations continue to lower the barrier to entry for artistic jobs, and also allow for increased and further experimentation.

VOICE-OVER WORK

Voice-over work is a production technique where a voice is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. This is a growing field for both actors and teachers. As more actors are turning to voice-over work, they need voice-over teachers to help them learn the techniques. A good voice is only the starting point.

“You really need to learn a lot of things,” says Goldin. “It’s everything from learning to modulate your voice to different kinds of inflection. The sound of a deodorant commercial is different from the sound of a Porsche commercial.”

USER EXPERIENCE (UX) DESIGN AND USER INTERFACE (UI) DESIGN

UX and UI design utilize the concept of making products and services that are human-centered. UX deals with purpose and functionality, and UI deals with the quality of the interaction that the end-user has with the product. Especially as the world moves ever online, having platforms and other interfaces that are pleasant to look at and use is vital. Graphic designers, animators and other visual artists and engineers have a number of opportunities to look forward to in this field.

WEB DESIGN

Web designers focus on the layout of websites and design the interactive elements that appear on them. This job requires an understanding of coding and the prevailing trends in web aesthetics. Virtual reality, game design, the metaverse and video game design are all related fields that are expected to add many jobs in the coming years.

IMMERSIVE ART INSTALLATIONS

Our experts explained that art collectives like Meow Wolf bring groups of artists together to create large installations of art, and that collectives such as this are something that will grow more and more common after the pandemic is finished. These artists utilize a variety of media, including architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, video production, cross-reality, music, audio engineering, writing, costuming and performance, and also focus on breaking the “fourth wall” of performance.

CROSS-DISCIPLINARY ARTS PROFESSIONS

Arts jobs have become more cross-disciplinary with people with different skill sets coming together to create a product or service. One concrete example is a company like MedRhythms, which utilizes the concept that music can heal people’s brains. They work with music, sensors, and software to create neurological interventions to target the rehabilitation and prevention of neurological injuries and diseases. Other cross disciplines include using theater artists to do cultural sensitivity training at hospitals or schools.

“This opens opportunities for artists that have yet to be imagined,” Guillemin says.

ARTS EDUCATION

As people hunkered down inside their homes during the past year, many of them reconnected with “their inner maker self,” Guillemin says.

“They’re picking up and playing an instrument or drawing or writing, and this has ignited something in all of us that we see the value in this. I hope that post-COVID that demand will go up for the arts because people have reconnected with this expressive side of themselves.”