Performing arts stigma

Eagan Norman, Staff Reporter

If you’re going into a major in the Arts, you’ve probably been asked, “So what do you plan on doing after college with an art degree?” or, for those with more blunt friends and family, “Seriously?” Over the years, a stigma has developed around art, whether its music, theater, dance, literary or visual. People have started to discredit the value of the arts, just because they see more immediate success in STEM fields and in “more practical” fields. There have been pushes to take arts out of school, and people who go into the arts are ridiculed, but without the arts in our society, very few realize that we would be worse off.

Admittedly, in high school, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the arts. As someone who was planning to go into either studying mathematics or physics, I thought that they were a waste of a class period, and resources by our school. My best friend, Zach, however, was on the opposite side of the spectrum. While I was taking AP Physics and AP Calculus my senior year, he was taking AP Studio Art and Jazz Band. I never ridiculed him for it, but most of the time, he could tell that I didn’t believe that it was something productive to be doing with his time. Then, when it came time to be getting ready to go to school, as I decided to head here to study physics, he decided to go to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD). When I originally heard this, I was dumbfounded; he was going to be wasting thousands of dollars to be going through a program that would give him what I thought was a worthless piece of paper! I talked with him about it a couple times; however, the way he explained it to me started to change my mind.

Zach is in his freshman year studying industrial design at MIAD. If he continues on this path, post-graduation, he will be working with companies to design their products, making anything from bottles for your favorite drinks to intricate bathroom sinks. He will also be fairly well off after graduation, given that his degree from MIAD has numerous corporate partnerships that helps them have a relatively high job placement six months after graduation, giving graduates competitive salaries, on average being $57,621 a year.

From talking with Zach, his friends from MIAD, and my other friends that are pursuing degrees in the arts, I’ve gathered that it’s not all fun and games being an arts major, and can sometimes require even more work than your average major at a university. Each course requires you to put in vigorous effort outside of classes to perfect your art, whether you’re practicing an instrument, rehearsing your lines, or anything else that will better you as an artist. The average class schedule at MIAD is a four day school week with classes starting around 8:00am and ending around 7:00 p.m. and students still have work to do outside of those times.

So next time someone tells you that they’re studying the arts, before you open your mouth to say, “Where’s that going to get you in life?” think about all the movies you’ve ever seen, music you’ve ever listened too, every picture, painting, sculpture, or any other form of visual art you’ve ever looked at, every book you’ve ever read and every other art form you’ve taken time out of your life to appreciate. Then congratulate that person on choosing to do what they want with their life, even though a large part of society judges and ridicules them.