General Visual & Performing Arts

Types of Degrees General Visual & Performing Arts Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general visual and performing arts graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	3,794
Associate Degree	1,636
Basic Certificate	478
Master’s Degree	343
Undergraduate Certificate	57
Doctor’s Degree	32
Graduate Certificate	15

What General Visual & Performing Arts Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to visual arts were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Visual Arts Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in visual arts should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.

Skills for Visual Arts Majors

When studying visual arts, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Abilities for Visual Arts Majors

As a visual arts major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

What Can You Do With a General Visual & Performing Arts Major?

People with a visual arts degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Art Directors	5.4%	$92,780
Art, Drama, and Music Professors	12.0%	$69,960
Artists and Related Workers	5.5%	$65,390
Craft Artists	4.8%	$34,240
Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators	6.8%	$49,380
Graphic Designers	4.2%	$50,370
Multimedia Artists and Animators	8.4%	$72,520

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Visual & Performing Arts?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 3,794 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general visual and performing arts in 2021, making it rank #94 in popularity. This major is dominated by women with about 58% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of visual arts majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	283
Black or African American	393
Hispanic or Latino	709
White	1,944
International Students	138
Other Races/Ethnicities	327

Geographic Diversity

Visual Arts appeals to people across the globe. About 3.6% of those with this major are international students. The most popular countries for students from outside the country are:

• China
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• India
• Canada

How Much Do General Visual & Performing Arts Majors Make?

Bachelor’s Degree Starting Salary

The median starting salary of students who graduated in 2017-2019 with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts was $25,314 per year. These stats come from the U.S. Department of Education. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $21,666 (25th percentile) and $27,946 (75th percentile).

One thing to note here is that not all of these people may be working in careers related to visual arts.

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $42,770 to $78,230 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to visual arts. This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Visual & Performing Arts

Some degrees associated with visual arts may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to visual arts have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	5.1%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	9.9%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	3.4%
Some College Courses	13.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	7.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	34.8%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.2%
Master’s Degree	16.9%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.4%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.0%
Doctoral Degree	8.7%

Online General Visual & Performing Arts Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 514 schools offered some type of general visual and performing arts program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	22	2
Certificate (2-4 Years)	6	0
Associate’s Degree	187	10
Bachelor’s Degree	8	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	45	2
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	8	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in General Visual & Performing Arts Worth It?

The median salary for a visual arts grad is $58,370 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 46% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $369,400 after 20 years!

Majors Related to General Visual & Performing Arts

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to visual arts.

Major	Number of Grads
Fine & Studio Arts	37,413
Design & Applied Arts	36,301
Music	25,910
Drama & Theater Arts	17,341
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	16,778
Arts & Media Management	4,788
Dance	3,288
Other Visual Art	912
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry	119
Community/Environmental/Socially-Engaged Art	10

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.