Art as a field of study is slowly gaining ground back in the hearts and minds of businesses and ordinary people alike. Many engineers late in their careers often choose to leave their tech jobs doing coding and whatever and move to more artistic careers like UI or UX design or game design. Have you ever wondered why that happens? While we cannot say for sure what goes on in the minds of other people, we do know for a fact that these careers in design offer more pay and are also more secure.
Don’t believe us? The huge number of layoffs that are happening in the tech industry right now as companies prepare to weather the incoming recession by cutting costs should be known to you. The highest number of layoffs across different roles and different tech companies according to a report were those of simple programmers.
So as the tech industry closes its gates to prepare for the winter, a career in visual arts can be a saving grace if you’re already interested in beauty and aesthetics. Thus, in this blog, we talk about how to prepare for that career – including courses, the best colleges, job roles, and a lot more.
Visual Arts are essentially a part of fine arts themselves and deal with subjects that are visual in nature. This includes writing, photography, ceramics, drawing, video, filmmaking, sculpture, painting, etc.
Depending on their task or client’s request, a visual artist might create art for decorative, commercial, or fine art purposes. They may also work in varied fields, from education all the way to marketing and branding.
These days, there are many courses that you can pursue to build a career in visual arts. Many colleges like Anant National University offer courses in this field to train students in the various disciplines of art, sculpture, photography, cinematography, design, etc. These courses can either be found at the undergraduate or postgraduate levels.
For the sake of this blog, we will focus more on the undergraduate course in visual design that is more popular in our country – the Bachelor in visual arts course. Take a look at the table below to get an idea of what this course entails.
| Course Name | Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) |
| Level | Undergraduate |
| Duration | 4 years |
| Mode of Examination | Semester System |
| Eligibility Criteria | 10+2 passed with a minimum of 50% marks |
| Average Salary | INR 5 LPA |
So, if you’re looking to get into visual studies careers, there are basically three pathways you could technically choose to make it happen.
Here are some of the best colleges and universities that offer courses that will help you land the best fine, visual and performing arts careers.
| Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) | Gargi College, Delhi |
| Jesus and Mary College, Delhi | Hansraj College, Delhi |
| Delhi College of Arts and Commerce | Ramjas College, Delhi |
| College of Art, New Delhi | Kamla Nehru College for Women (KMC) |
| Hindu College, Delhi | Banaras Hindu University (BHU) |
| Anant National University | Fergusson College |
| Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi | Visva Bharati University, Birbhum |
| Lady Shriram College for Women, New Delhi | Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai |
Since this course is multidisciplinary and teaches you all about the arts, art history, and different forms of applied arts, there are a lot of careers related to visual arts that you can choose to pursue. Here are some of the different careers you could pursue according to their industry.
| Advertising | Computer Graphics | Fine Arts | Museum/ Gallery | Photography | Film |
| Art Director | Animation Artist | Fibre Artist | Curator | Fashion Photographer | Cinematographer |
| Creative Director | Concept Artist | Mixed-Media Artist | Dealer | Wedding Photographer | Costume Designer |
| Typographer | Digital Illustrator | Sculptor | Gallery Owner | Wildlife Photographer | Set Designer |
| Web Designer | Video Game Designer | Painter | Docent | Studio Photographer | Videographer |
| UI/UX Designer | Visual Effects Animator | Portrait Artist | Museum Educator | Photojournalist | Special Effects Makeup Artist |
Students who pursue the Bachelor of Visual Arts degrees for design colleges like ANU have plenty of scope in their future careers, as you might have already seen by now. They can choose to continue their studies with a master’s or pg diploma or join the workforce in various industries for visual art careers that pay well.
To get a better idea of the Bachelor of visual arts scope, refer to the graph below.
There are a plethora of career options available for students look visual arts. Aas it forms the basis of the communication between a business and the general consumer, the visual arts have a lot of scope these days. All you need to do to prepare for a career in these fields is know what you want to do, and from which college. These rest, as they say, trust your judgment.