Here in the UK, we are very lucky to have access to a multitude of different degree paths at university — you can study hard and achieve the grades to go into medicine, business or finance; and if you’re looking for something suited to the creative mind, taking the time to build up a portfolio can give you access to plenty of humanities-based or artistic courses too. But it is no secret that attending university is a luxury for many, especially when tuition fees for certain schools are so high and students often live off of loans. We are told that struggling for three or four years to achieve a Bachelor’s will be worth it in the end, but usually only if we end up making a career in a certain field where we’re almost guaranteed to make the money back fast. On the other hand, unfortunately, the reputation of the ‘struggling artist’ can leave a lot of narrow-minded family members pleading with their children to choose a different degree.
Even without going to college or university, aspiring artists often have their dreams crushed by teachers and parents who don’t think the creative industries offer high enough wages. While lawyers and surgeons expect to earn six-figure salaries as soon as they enter a grad job, a career in an artistic field might leave you unable to afford luxuries such as cars and holidays, and stuck sharing a one-bed rental well into your thirties. Traditionally, unless you make it big, it could take a long time for your reputation as a musician or actor to pay off. At least, that is the common assumption.
The coronavirus lockdown has changed the way many people utilise their free time. Whilst on furlough from their 9 to 5 office jobs, many picked up an instrument they’d always wanted to learn but never had the time to before. Parents with children off from school broke out the paint-by-numbers kits for entertainment, and bored teens started keeping journals or trying out photography. Handmade gifts became more widespread as people were unable to get out to the shops to buy more materialistic goods; birthdays were received with hand-crafted jewellery and Christmases with wonky hand-knitted scarfs. While typically it wasn’t always easy making a living out of selling these crafts, nowadays the arts hold a very different rep — for a lot of people struggling with their mental health over months of lockdowns, the arts became a comfort and even a necessity of life.
A few years ago, right-wing think-tanks were arguing for ‘“a reduction in low-value university degrees that deliver weak earnings for graduates and poor value for money for taxpayers”’ (Phillips, 2019). With median graduate earnings of just £20,200 per annum after five years, the prospects didn’t look good. Using the arguments that you are not obliged to pay back any student loans until you earn a salary over a certain threshold, and that debts are written off when so many years have passed, these think-tanks suggest we should be encouraging young people to choose different career paths. If such advice had stuck back in 2019 or decades before, it might have been the same corporate complainers who’d have struggled to find a hobby when the pandemic hit. Without young people finding their passions and pursuing jobs in the creative industries, they could forget about sticking their earphones in to listen to their favourite songs, winding down at night with a book or flicking through magazines on the can.
After facing harsh stereotypes on their jobs for so many years, the pandemic provided many artists with a chance to change people’s minds. Many took to selling prints of their work on Etsy or found online writing courses to finally finish the novel as a task they’d always had on their bucket list. Musicians recorded entire albums shut away indoors and comedians like Bo Burnham recorded Netflix-worthy material during quarantine. Although nobody hopes to be stuck indoors forever, the coronavirus will not be an illness that could ever be forgotten or left in the past; it has changed our lives forever, and with it the way we view what’s meaningful to us in this world.
Perhaps with such versatile displays of what a job in the arts could entail, we could grow to be more encouraging of our children when they suggest studying courses in college that we used to deem ‘Mickey Mouse degrees’ (Phillips, 2019). While it will always be crucial to train up pilots and computer scientists and to commend our nurses during these hard times, no child should face discrimination for their passions in life. Particularly with the ever-growing popularity of social media (such as Instagram where many artists showcase their work, or YouTube where the phenomenon BookTube is on the rise), sites such as Depop and Redbubble, and the trendiness of supporting small businesses, it is clear to see the booming and varied nature of the creative industries, and that they are here to be taken seriously. Making money from an arts-based business is no longer a myth; the arts are intertwined with almost every aspect of our lives — it just took a worldwide pandemic to finally show people as such.
Figure 1: ‘Super Nurse!’, The Conversation.
References
Phillips, S. (2019). ‘Art under threat: the growing crisis in higher education’, Royal Academy [online]. Available at: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/art-under-threat-crisis-britain-higher-education (Accessed 04/01/22).
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