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An Exciting Career Opportunity for Those in the Arts

For students and those looking for career opportunities in the arts, it can be difficult to find areas where work will be available. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. Those in the arts may have degree or career aspirations that are often suggested as not having a great future, but there is a great opportunity present in one field.

One great opportunity for arts students and aspiring individuals is found in the cruise ship entertainment industry. A wonderful experience that blends some of the best aspects of being a performer, working on a cruise ship is a great way to live out your dreams.

First, you can’t beat the location. If you have a passion for traveling, or at least working in style, then there are few things better than a gigantic, luxurious ship. You will certainly not grow tired of exploring fun locations on a beautiful ship. The cruise ship entertainment industry is also very stable. Many different types of lines are known for having high-quality performers, where you can join the ranks and learn from those in the field. It would be a great opportunity to improve as a musician, dancer, or other type of performer or with regard to your art.

From this it is easy to see that this is a wise career choice. Cruise ship workers of all kinds enjoy the boost that such a position gives them on their resume. It will be easier to move up if the opportunity presents itself, as this would certainly look good on your resume. Working on a cruise ship blends the best aspects of work and fun. You can help your career and possibly find something that you may never want to leave. Performing in the comfort of a luxury ship is hard to beat. Don’t overlook this opportunity.

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Juilliard: Acing the Audition

It’s one of the most notoriously competitive schools in the world. And understandably so. A degree from Juilliard is guaranteed success in the arts granting performance time at venerated venues, gigs with world-famous music companies, and record and film deals. Jazz great Miles Davis, pianist Van Cliburn, composer Philip Glass, and cellist Yo Yo Ma are just a smattering of its successful alumni. So what does it take to get into this elite arts academy? More than just hours upon hours of daily practice. With an acceptance rate of only 8%, Juilliard is one of the most selective schools in the world. And you can bet that the competition within the institution is just as fierce as the competition to get in.

Along with the usual  application materials, prospective students must audition live in New York. Some courses within the music department are even more selective and only a handful of applicants are invited to audition. Audition requirements vary for each instrument, but all require hopeful applicants to perform works from memory and demonstrate a well-rounded repertoire. This isn’t a one-song try-out, this is a rigorous, hours-long intense audition. Juillard requires several works to be performed. For example, for piano, each applicant must perform: a full sonata by Beethoven, Mozart or Hayden, a substantial work by one of the major Romantic Era composers (Mendelssohn, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann), two etudes, a prelude and fugue from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, and a substantial work of the applicant’s choosing.

Several years of solid study, a commitment to a career in music, and a good night’s sleep are all essential to getting through your audition. But in order to win over the judges, you must show that you have flawless technique, unquestionable and rare talent, and exude confidence.

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Camp Life at Interlochen

Interlochen is one of the premiere arts summer camps in the world. It has a reputation for being the summer camp for prodigies and as a breeding ground for virtuosos. Of course, any child who is serious about their art has considered enrolling, but what exactly is a typical summer like at Interlochen? Is the food any good or is it the stereotypical camp slop you see in movies? Are the rumors of intense competition true? What separates it from other arts camps and is it all its cracked up to be?

Established in 1928, Interlochen accepts roughly 3,000 students per summer ranging in age from eight to eighteen. Disciplines include motion picture arts, visual arts, creative writing, dance, theatre, music, and general arts. One of the quirkiest trademarks of Interlochen is the mandatory uniform for all faculty and students. The uniform dates back to the camp’s inception and is intended to encourage students to distinguish themselves not by their clothing but their talent.

The camp is located in northwest Michigan and has a stunning 1200 acre campus. While students primarily focus on their art, Interlochen is still a summer camp and campers can expect all of the traditional recreation including canoeing, campfires, and organized games like capture-the-flag. Each camper is assigned to a cabin and spends most of their time with cabinmates and their cabin counselor.

It’s hard to define a typical week at Interlochen. Students are given a good deal of freedom in crafting their schedules, picking out which concerts, exhibitions, and performances to attend. There are more than 450 events scheduled throughout the summer so there’s quite a lot to choose from. Outside of a camper’s core schedule of study, they are allowed to pick elective classes from other disciplines.

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Arts Camps for the Serious Young Artist

Tommy Shaw of the band Styx performing at Inte...

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Summer Camp gives a kid time away from home to relax, have fun, and make new friends. But some summer camps offer a space to hone artistic talents. Because the school year keeps kids busy with other subjects, extra-curricular activities, and part-time jobs, a summer away at an arts camp can give him/her the time to develop their craft and the instruction and attention they might not be able to get otherwise. There are hundreds of camps in the U.S. that offer summer programs geared toward the budding and serious artist. The following are some of the better-known and established ones.

Oxbow Summer Art Camp, Napa, CA

Their motto is “No Lanyards Here”, and that pretty much sets the tone at Oxbow Arts Camp. A camp for visual and general young artists looking for deeper stimulation than the typical camp crafts class, Oxbow gets kids sculpting busts and painting large-scale murals on day one. The programs on offer include: media/computer arts, painting, sculpture, illustration, photography, and drawing.

Idyllwild Arts Camp, Idyllwild, CA

Idyllwild isn’t just for kids, adults can study here over the summer too. Programs range from creative writing to visual arts. It’s one of the largest summer camps in the country and has an open admission policy – students of all levels are welcome to attend.

NYU Steinhardt Music and Performing Arts Camp, New York, NY

The perfect choice for the aspiring musician who wants to get a taste for the arts available in New York City. This camp is for older students – those in high school or college students looking to round out their education.

Interlochen, Interlochen, MI

A selective camp with a top-notch reputation. This is the camp for the Carneige Hall-bound camper. Though originally a music camp, Interlochen has since added additional programs such as theatre, dance, film, and creative writing.

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Slam Dunk: Poetry Scores Big With Kids

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 25: Dr Nancy Gr...

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Organizations like Global Writes in New York are getting kids involved in slam poetry. Often they find that students have a lot to say but nowhere to say it. Introducing kids to slam poetry has become a nation-wide effort in diversifying often inadequate arts education as well as giving them a public space to say what’s on their mind, and to let them know that people care what they have to say.

Poetry slams were first held in the mid-eighties, but it was in the nineties that they took off, launching a whole subculture in major cities like Chicago and New York. In a slam, poets recite their poetry (usually in a spoken-word style) and a panel of judges ranks the performance, announcing a slam-winner at the end of the night. Criticized as being non-academic and an affront to real literature, the poetry slam has a bit of an underdog quality to it. However, the scene has attracted all types of poetry, not to mention poets, and is viewed as a supremely creative and innovative performance technique, one that gets the audience involved and raises the stakes for performers.

Organizations like Global Writes are cropping up all over the U.S. aiming to establish community and support creativity amongst young people. Spoken word instructors favor this type of poetry because it’s a departure from the didactic approach that is usually employed in middle school and high school English classes. Getting the students to express themselves has become the foremost goal in teaching. Because slam nights for the most part happen outside of school and after school hours, kids are given a place to go, something extra-curricular that is worth caring about. While it’s a competition, students are taught to support each other’s work, to give constructive feedback rather than harsh criticism.

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Atelier – A Workshop for Artists

Atelier of an Artist or Atelier of a Painter, ...

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French for “Artist’s Studio”, an atelier is exactly that: an established artist working with a few select student in his/her studio. Back in the fifteen-hundreds this was the way one studied art and was very much like having an apprenticeship. Several art movements were built this way, an instructor at an atelier influencing the work of his pupils, and the pupils in turn, learning and borrowing from each other.

Today, an atelier is usually a much larger operation than one artist and few students, though there are a few exclusive ateliers that invite only a few students at a time. In most ateliers there are a few resident professional artists – experts – who supervise the students’ work. Students aren’t expected to create new concepts or let their creativity run rampant, innovating and experimenting. Rather, ateliers center on mastering drawing and painting techniques. At the atelier the student-artist will study the masters usually starting with the Renaissance and ending in Modernism, giving him/her a well-rounded scope of styles and techniques as well as historical knowledge. A lot of time is devoted to drawing the human form, reproducing famous works of art to learn the techniques of the old masters, and comparative measurement – learning the basics of perspective and how to judge and reproduce accurate size. A series of assignments are given throughout the student’s stay at the atelier: still life, drawing a live model, and cast drawing to name a few. Depending on the atelier master, the student’s study will involve different tasks.

A few better-known ateliers include the Atelier de Bresoles in Montreal, the London Atelier of Representational Art, Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, The Florence Academy of Art, The Ravenswood Atelier in Chicago, and the School of Representational Art in Chicago founded by Robert Lack.

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Jazz Up Your Talent Show

A talent show is a great way to get kids to showcase their artistic talents. Talent shows also encourage students: when students see their classmates performing on stage it empowers them to overcome their shyness and do the same. However, talent shows can be disorganized and not as effective in promoting creativity as intended. As art educators, it’s important not to miss opportunities to help kids shine and cultivate their talents.

Theme

Themes give students a direction and challenge without inhibiting their creativity. To get kids excited about participating, let students vote on a theme. Popular themes include “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Hollywood”, “Summertime”, and “The Roaring Twenties”. If your students can handle a more competitive atmosphere model the show after American Idol.

Give awards for originality

Their technique might be atrocious and their voice might sound like nails on a chalkboard, but if the concept is something unique, or if they picked an unexpected or difficult song, give points for that.

Encourage collaboration

It can be terrifying to brave the stage alone and artistic collaboration can nurture social skills and give timid kids a chance to participate.

Give a short workshop

Teach kids how to brainstorm for their acts. Discuss different elements their act might need: costumes, make-up, music, sets, props, sound effects, accompanists. Discuss different types of acts: magic, musicals, soliloquy, dance, stand-up comedy, storytelling. Provide examples to give students an idea of what they could do with their act. If appropriate, have a critique session.

Provide time and space

Let students know this is a serious project. Provide classrooms or gym areas after school for practice and rehearsals. Allot classroom time to work on talent show acts. For students who chose not to perform, let them provide constructive criticism.

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An Art Oriented Education

The hope and wish for any parent is that their child gets the best education possible. It’s not enough to raise their child as a good person, but rather that they get the tools and schooling they need to live a functional, happy life. In order to do this a parent must consider carefully the options they have for their education. In many places around the country, parents are looking into alternative schools for their children and are seeing the benefits.

Alternative schools focus on artistic education as opposed to traditional curriculums. While it’s important that a child understand and know how to work within a scientific and mathematical world, they are not the only things that comprise a well rounded education. There is a lot to be said about giving a child a rich and artistic education in an alternative school, as it can teach children skills that other schools cannot and can allow for creativity and positive self-expression to flourish.

The activities that a child gets out of an artistic education include the chance to participate in theatrical productions where they can discover a passion for acting and performing. While doing this, they also learn how to communicate, accept challenging circumstances, and throw themselves into a role where they face adversity. They also get the chance to construct sets and learn building skills, as well as sewing and creating their own kids costumes.

The feeling of learning a functional skill and having something to show for it is truly different than simply taking tests or writing papers. At alternative schools children are also given an opportunity to learn to write music and make canvasses. These are skills that are not enforced or commonly taught in traditional schools these days.

It is important for a child to get the best education. These artistic based schools teach basic learning practices as well as non-traditional, creative skills, making for the perfect combination.

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What To Do When Your School’s Art Budget Has Been Cut

You’ve heard it time and time again – they’re cutting funding for arts programs in schools again. When budgets are tight art programs are the first to go. Art programs consistently get cut despite research that proves their necessity in fostering a child’s educational and creative growth. Math and language arts take the lead as the more practical disciplines, but why? Today there are several lucrative career paths that require artistic ability. Among the many reasons why art should be taught in schools are that a majority of kids are visual learners and learn by doing and that art is therapeutic – art has been proven especially effective in treating mental illnesses and rehabilitating kids who have experienced traumatic home lives.

So the school system just cut all of the art classes. As a general teacher, what can you do to keep art alive in your students’ education?

Give Artistic Assignments

Even if you’re teaching biology, you can assign some creative tasks that nurture a child’s creativity and reinforce what they’ve learned in class. Instead of filling out worksheets, have students draw diagrams, create new species and mold them out of clay or putty. If you’re reading Shakespeare, have students draw costumes for a pretend-production. There are several resources online for incorporating art into your lesson plans.

Start an After-School Program

Get parents and other faculty involved in fundraising. Local businesses often pitch in to fund school plays or field trips. If there is enough interest among your students, charge a small supply fee for materials. Choosing a wallet-friendly activity such as still-life drawing will keep costs low and encourage higher enrollment. After school programs can sometimes work better than actually classes because without the pressures of grades or mandatory attendance students can focus solely on being creative.

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Go To Yale And Be An Artist

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT - OCTOBER 7: Winner o...
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Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut, is one of the country’s top schools. It is most widely known for educating and training first-rate lawyers and doctors. What few people realize is that Yale offers an abundant amount of programs, one of which is the Bachelor of Art program for artists.
The School of Fine Arts at Yale College, which is a subdivision of the University, has four major courses: photography, painting/printmaking, graphic design, and sculpture. To enter students can apply to the Bachelor of Art degree admission program. Mail the application form out to Yale College School of the Arts directly when majoring in the arts.
The schools reputation for demanding and producing the best students does not stop at the most familiar academic programs. The art programs require the same scrutiny. For the first year, students are required to have five academic courses related to the art field, such as Drawing 100. Along with those courses, studio work is to be completed within the first year. The second year a standard evaluation is prepared. The Sophomore Review is given to every student their second year of college. The individuals will gather all of their material that was created during studio classes, put them in a portfolio, and present it to the program director who will evaluate and determine the quality of work presented. The Sophomore Review is, not only to evaluate the current work, but also to determine if the person will remain in the art program for the next two years. After the evaluation and once the students major have been accepted then they will continue studio work as well as academics throughout the undergraduate year.
Although this may seem like a grueling progress for would-be artists, the Arts program at Yale College may be the right process needed to dole out mature and well-crafted artistry.

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