Choosing a Future Direction After Graduating from Art University

Focusing on the Students Who Have a Desire to Become Artists

Abstract

　 This article examines the choice of future career direction after graduation from an “art university” by students who have a desire to become artists, and considers what kinds of social and educational conditions result in the relatively low ratio of such graduates who are given a promise of regular employment before graduation.

　 Firstly, we examine the reasons underlying the two main postgraduate routes for aspiring artists, namely going to graduate school and getting a part-time job. The former is explained as a way for the student of realizing the formation and evolution of their artistic identity, giving themselves resources of time and space to continue art-making, and accumulating social capital. Doing part-time jobs after graduation is discussed in terms of getting the time needed for art-making, clarifying their future direction in life, building up through their “social” experiences forms of capital that are hard to obtain within the university, and preparing for their new career direction.

　 Secondly, we clarify that for students, employment signifies the end of creating art or the transformation of art into a hobby, and that the process of giving this meaning to employment is realized and maintained through the interaction among teachers and students in an educational environment which emphasizes art-making. However, they do not completely reject employment as a future direction if it makes it possible for them to continue creating art because their main concern is not whether they can get employment, but whether they can continue to produce art.