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Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts  Volume 2, Issue 3 
http://artivate.org  pp. 28-39 
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Copyright © 2013, the author     
 
 

BARRIERS TO RECOGNIZING ARTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS 
ESSENTIAL TO PROFESSIONAL ARTS TRAINING  
Jason C. White, The Ohio State University 
 

Abstract 
 While many professional arts training programs prepare students to excel at the practice 
and performance of the arts, evidence suggests that many professional arts training programs 
may be failing to prepare students to be professional artists. A total of 11.1% of all recent college 
graduates with undergraduate arts degrees are unemployed (Carnevale, Cheah, & Strohl, 2012, p. 
7). Fifty-two percent of arts undergraduate alumni reported being dissatisfied with their 
institution’s ability to advise them about further career or education opportunities (SNAAP, 
2012, p. 14). Eighty-one percent of all arts undergraduate alumni reported having a primary job 
outside of the arts for reasons of job security (SNAAP, 2012, p. 19). Many arts higher education 
administrators address the situation by advising arts students to attend business and 
entrepreneurship courses. However, these courses are often taught or presented outside of an arts 
training context. Arts entrepreneurship education can serve as contextual 
business/career/technology education for arts students; however, barriers make it difficult for 
administrators to create adequate curricular room for arts entrepreneurship education. 
Furthermore, the teaching and learning of contextual business/career/technology education in 
professional arts training programs may often be thought of as helpful but not essential, as 
evidenced by the National Office of Arts Accreditation (NOAA) classification of these types of 
courses as general education units. This essay supports the need for arts entrepreneurship 
education, and discusses key barriers to recognizing arts entrepreneurship education as essential 
to professional arts training. 

 
Introduction 

 In 2011, more than 36,000 arts alumni responded to the Strategic National Arts Alumni 
Project (SNAAP) survey from 66 institutions (8 arts high schools and 58 postsecondary 
institutions) in the United States and Canada. The average institutional response rate was over 
20% (SNAAP, 2012, pp. 4-5). The results were released in the 2012 annual report, and served as 
indicators for arts graduates’ perceived value of their degree. While the data generally indicates 
positive educational outcomes, the study also indicates certain measures of dissatisfaction and 
distinct professional challenges - the most relevant appearing below: 
 

Arts alumni of undergraduate and graduate programs were somewhat or very 
dissatisfied with: career advising or information about further education options 
(50%), opportunities for degree-related internships or work (46%), opportunities 
to network with alumni and others (41%). (SNAAP, 2012, p. 14) 
 
81% of all alumni surveyed, reported having a job outside of the arts for reasons 
of job security. (SNAAP, 2012, p. 19) 

 
 Based on the 2012 findings, SNAAP conducted a secondary analysis that same year, and 
published a special report entitled Painting With Broader Strokes: Reassessing the Value of An 
Arts Degree. This secondary analysis served as an expansion of the 2012 report. Some relevant 
findings in this report include, but are not limited to the following: 



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Arts alumni still face significant financial obstacles to engaging in art 
professionally. Almost a third (30%) of former professional artists and those who 
wanted to be artists but did not do so pointed to debt, including student loan debt, 
as a reason to find other work. (Lindemann, et al., 2012, p. 22) 
 
Fifty-two percent of those who stopped working as a professional artist did so 
because of better pay in other fields. (Lindemann, et al., 2012, p. 22) 
 
While arts alumni generally give their schools high marks when it comes to 
imparting elements of artistic training such as creativity and critical thinking, 
when it comes to elements of professional training such as business and 
entrepreneurial abilities, there are large gaps between the skills these alumni say 
they have acquired at their degree-granting institutions and the skills they indicate 
are important for their working lives. (Lindemann, et al., 2012, p. 28) 

 
 In 2011, Anthony Carnevale (Director of the Georgetown University Center on Education 
and the Workforce) chaired a relevant study entitled What is It Worth: The Economic Value of 
College Majors, which found “Those most likely to be unemployed are in the Arts group (8 
percent).” (p. 31) Using 2009-10 data from the American Community Survey, Carnevale also 
conducted and released a similar study in 2012 (Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment 
and Earnings), which reported the unemployment rates for recent (aged 22 to 26) and 
experienced (aged 30 to 54) college graduates in various majors. Key findings include: 
Unemployment for students with new Bachelor’s degrees (across the board) is an unacceptable 
8.9%. (p. 3) 
 While this news is discouraging, the same report also indicates that recent arts 
undergraduates had an even higher unemployment rate of 11.1% (p. 7). These statistics suggest 
that the financial cost of pursuing professional arts degrees may be outweighing the degrees’ 
benefits. Pujol and Dempster previously addressed this trend and suggest a call for arts higher 
education reform: 

…current and new students, at least throughout schools in the United States, are 
paying fortunes for inadequate art educations and getting into bank-loan debt, 
which is a huge disservice to them. Therefore, we must not be lazy or afraid of 
triggering change, no matter how painful, and ultimately we must rely on the 
growing numbers of our art students who connect the dots on their own and end 
up with a multidisciplinary education in spite of the institution, not because of it. 
(Pujol, 2009, p. 3) 

 
 It is important to note that not all post-secondary arts education programs share the goal 
of training students for professional work in arts or arts-related careers. However, the cited data 
reflects unanticipated - if not poor - professional outcomes for alumni who attended post 
secondary arts education programs primarily for the purpose of learning to make a living as a 
creative, visual or performing artist. This essay focuses on professional arts training programs 
sharing this goal (e.g. those that lead to BFA, MFA or DFA degrees). Participatory evaluation 
and action research led by alumni of professional arts training programs may be helpful in 
determining why the outcomes mentioned above occur. 



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The Decision to Pursue a Professional Arts Degree 

 There are many factors influencing stakeholders’ decisions and actions concerning 
professional arts training programs. Stakeholders include but are not limited to, arts students, 
parents, program administrators, faculty members and most importantly, university executives 
who in their role as arts administrators, participate in developing accreditation standards. 
Prospective arts students often apply to professional arts training programs believing these 
programs provide the education, knowledge and experiences needed to become a “professional 
artist.” Perhaps for some students, the perception of intrinsic benefits gained from earning a 
professional arts degree outweighs certain financial realities and challenges they face in the 
future. For others whose ambitions lean towards the popular arts, professional arts degrees may 
be perceived as a one-way ticket to life-long fame and fortune. In either case, these impressions 
can greatly influence a prospective student’s enrollment decision. For example, some institutions 
may (either knowingly or unknowingly) perpetuate notions of life-long fame and fortune through 
recruitment materials intended to support programmatic agendas.  In cases where this is true, 
prospective students may often rely on personal assumptions and marketing to make enrollment 
decisions. If a prospective student chooses to pursue a professional arts degree based solely on 
these notions, unforeseen and unrealized challenges may position them to accumulate education 
debt. Upon graduation unforeseen and educational debt challenges may quickly force them to 
obtain a part-time job, which may further motivate them to obtain an even higher paying full-
time job; ultimately they may abandon their professional artistic pursuit because of financial 
necessity. For those not experiencing student debt issues, unanticipated challenges before and 
during their post-secondary arts training could position students for career paths that do not meet 
their pre-professional expectations. Early career feedback from alumni of professional arts 
training programs may help to better identify and address these types of new student perceptions 
and assumptions. 
 

Key Barriers 
 The cited unanticipated - if not poor - professional outcomes for arts students occur for 
many reasons. However, more research is needed to determine causation and correlation. In an 
effort to address these types of outcomes proactively, arts entrepreneurship educators have 
shown promise, developing courses, curricula and programs specifically designed to teach 
students contextual business/career/technology skills, behaviors and competencies. An informal 
inventory conducted by Dr. Gary Beckman and Jonathan Gangi in 2013 revealed that there are at 
least 60 institutions within the United States offering dedicated courses (83) to the study of arts 
entrepreneurship. Despite growing support for arts entrepreneurship education, barriers to 
recognizing arts entrepreneurship education as “essential” to professional arts training exist. 
Suggested barriers include but are not limited to barriers in curricular theory, accreditation and 
assessment. 
 
Barriers of Curricular Theory 
 Although there are many curricular/theoretical models for K-12 and collegiate arts 
education, a framework known to both is Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE), which 
came to favor in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. The model is familiar, 
historic, globally recognized and formalized – in contrast to arts entrepreneurship 
curricular theory, which is largely unfamiliar, emerging and informal. According to the 



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Journal of Aesthetic Education, DBAE “focuses on specific skills including techniques, 
art criticism and art history.” In 1987, the journal published the following framework 
identifying several basic characteristics of DBAE: 
 A. Rationale 

1. The goal of discipline-based art education is to develop students’ 
abilities to understand and appreciate art. This involves a knowledge of the 
theories and contexts of art and abilities to respond to as well as to create 
art. 
2. Art is taught as an essential component of general education and as a 
foundation for specialized art study. 

 B. Content 
1. Content for instruction is derived primarily from the disciplines of 
aesthetics, art criticism, art history, and art production. These disciplines 
deal with: (1) conceptions of the nature of art, (2) bases for valuing and 
judging art, (3) contexts in which art has been created, and (4) processes 
and techniques for creating art. 
2. Content for study is derived from a broad range of the visual arts, 
including folk, applied, and fine arts from Western and non-Western 
cultures and from ancient to contemporary times. 

 C. Curricula 
1. Curricula are written with sequentially organized and articulated content 
at all grade levels. 
2. Works of art are central to the organization of curricula and to 
integration of content from the disciplines. 
3. Curricula are structured to reflect comparable concern and respect for 
each of the four art disciplines. 
4. Curricula are organized to increase student learning and understanding. 
This involves a recognition of appropriate developmental levels. 

 D. Context 
1. Full implementation is marked by systematic, regular art instruction on 
a district-wide basis, art education expertise, administrative support, and 
adequate resources. 
2. Student achievement and program effectiveness are confirmed by 
appropriate evaluation criteria and procedures. (Journal of Aesthetic 
Education, 1987) 

 Rationale section (A) states, “The goal of discipline-based art education is to develop 
students’ abilities to understand and appreciate art.” This suggests that the primary goal of 
DBAE is not vocational, but aesthetic. A question emerges: if arts entrepreneurship education is 
perceived as vocational, traditionalists who hold authority in institutional arts policy may 
rationalize arts entrepreneurship education as a non-essential component of the traditional DBAE 
approach. 
 Other barriers may exist within or originate from traditional curricular/theoretical models. 
For example, in alignment with the goals of traditional DBAE theory, facilitators of DBAE 
programs rightly rationalize the performative aspects of the arts as essential to professional arts 
training. However, commentary from proponents of arts entrepreneurship education (such as 



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Dempster, below) suggest that arts students need to focus on mastering skills, competencies and 
behaviors beyond artistic practice and performance: 
 

We are naturally concerned about our students graduating into a hyper-
competitive, winner-take-all marketplace without the skills and knowledge that 
could give them the competitive edge needed to succeed. (Dempster, 2011, p. 
244) 

 
What makes little sense is expecting that we can drive students through four or five or six 
years of a highly regimented curriculum that affords few choices and asks for little 
individual initiative, and then expect them to flourish in a world that rewards creativity, 
opportunism, experimentation, and distinctiveness more than anything else—in short, an 
entrepreneurial world. (Dempster, 2011, p. 250) 

 
 Unanticipated or poor professional outcomes can occur when arts students graduate with 
skills, competencies and behaviors that are not in significant demand. For example, economist 
David Throsby identified the artistic workforce as a hypercompetitive winner take-all lottery 
(Throsby, 2010). Throsby’s view suggests that for the best chance of arts and arts-related career 
success, arts students may benefit from learning skills, competencies and behaviors outside their 
discipline. If intellectual diversity in professional arts training curricula is a goal, arts faculty and 
administrators may help facilitate this by structuring curricula in a way that encourages students 
to explore alternative arts and arts-related career-paths throughout the creative sector.  Why 
should the actor who finds out in his second year that he also loves dance, be forced to choose 
between the two? Why should the musician who wants to be a music executive, be forced to wait 
four years in order to learn about the music business? Why should an arts student be limited to 
studying the practice and performance of the arts? Pujol supports this point when he says:   
 

Art students need access to training in other disciplines, combining what we may 
identify as the very best of historical and contemporary drawing, painting, 
sculpture, photography, and installation art with conservation, ecological, and 
environmental efforts; ethics; cultural anthropology; urban sociology; behavioral 
psychology; global political science and economics; robotics; and media theory, 
among other fields. Nevertheless, the challenge is not just to open old boxed-up 
departments and bring in this challenging and refreshing intellectual diversity; it 
is also to not set this in stone. (Pujol, 2009, p. 5) 

 
 In summary, even if arts entrepreneurship education courses are adopted in higher 
education arts degree plans, barriers in curricular or programmatic theory may keep arts 
entrepreneurship education from being perceived as essential to professional arts training. These 
barriers may be re-enforced by perceived theoretical differences between arts educators across 
the institution. In many institutions, arts education curricula may be theory-driven instead of 
student-driven, thus re-enforcing theoretical barriers. To address the issues above, these and 
other curricular/theoretical barriers may be overcome through a renewed curricular focus on 
student outcomes.  If curriculum design in arts education is lead by “what students need to be 
able to do”, and that focus is supported by (instead of led by) diverse art(s) education theory, 



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facilitators of traditional DBAE and emerging arts entrepreneurship educators may find common 
ground, and engage in meaningful communication and collaboration. 
 
Barriers of Accreditation  
 In the United States, the National Office for Arts Accreditation (NOAA) establishes 
specific curricular content standards for undergraduate and graduate arts programs. These 
standards are determined by several discipline-based administrative branches responsible for 
assigning accreditation standards to their respective programs. Each branch has its own 
handbook, outlining content containing both broad and specific standards. Within the section 
identified as “purpose”, located under the principles and policies sections of all four of the 2012-
13 NOAA handbooks (National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), National 
Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), 
National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST)), it is identified that: 
 

Students enrolled in professional undergraduate degrees are expected to develop 
the knowledge, skills, concepts, and sensitivities essential to the life of the theatre 
professional. (NAST, 2012, p. 91)   
 
Students enrolled in professional undergraduate degrees in music are expected to 
develop the knowledge, skills, concepts, and sensitivities essential to the 
professional life of the musician. (NASM, 2012, p. 98) 
 
Students enrolled in professional undergraduate degrees in dance are expected to 
develop the knowledge, skills, concepts, and sensitivities essential to the artist in 
the field of dance. (NASD, 2012, p. 97)  
 
Students enrolled in professional undergraduate degrees in arts and design are 
expected to develop the knowledge, skills, concepts, and sensitivities essential to 
the professional life of the artist/designer. (NASAD, 2012, p. 91)    
 

 Evidence suggests that national and professional accreditation associations have yet to 
formally recognize contextual business/career/technology education as “essential” to 
professional arts training. For example, in every NOAA handbook, within sections labeled 
“recommendations,” it is “recommended” that accredited programs teach students to: 
 

• Acquire the skills necessary to assist in the development and advancement of their 
careers. (NASM, 2012, p. 101) 

 
• Acquire the skills necessary to assist in the development and advancement of their 

careers, including the development of competencies in communication, presentation, and 
business skills necessary to engage in professional practice in their major field. (NASAD, 
2012, p. 94) 

 
• Acquire the entrepreneurial skills necessary to assist in the development and 

advancement of their careers. (NAST, 2012, p. 94) 
 



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• Student orientation to the nature of professional work in their major field. Examples are 
organizational structures and working patterns; artistic, intellectual, educational, 
economic, technology, and political contexts; development potential; and career 
development. (NASD, 2012, p. 100) 

 
 National arts accreditation policy influences regional arts accreditation policy, which in 
turn, influences institutional arts education policy and curricula. Accreditation language also 
largely complements and reinforces the mentoring advice that arts students receive as part of 
their professional arts training. The four NOAA handbooks define the focus of accredited 
professional arts training degrees as follows:  
 

• The professional degree focuses on intensive work in art and design supported by a 
program in general studies. Normally, the intent is to prepare for professional practice. 
(NASAD, 2012, p. 87) 

 
• The professional degree focuses on intensive work in theatre supported by a program in 

general studies. (NAST, 2012, p. 82) 
 

• The professional degree focuses on intensive work in dance supported by a program in 
general studies. Normally, the intent is to prepare for professional practice. (NASD, 
2012, p. 87) 

 
• The professional degree focuses on intensive work in music supported by a program in 

general studies. Normally, the intent is to prepare for professional practice. (NASM, 
2012, p. 87) 

 
 While none of the NOAA handbooks specifically define the word “professional” 
(perhaps purposely), all NOAA handbooks indicate that accredited professional arts training 
programs should prepare students for professional practice (NASAD, p. 87, NAST, p. 82, 
NASD, p. 87, NASM, p. 87). According to the handbooks, at least 50-65% of accredited 
programs curricula must focus on intensive work within a fine arts discipline: 
 

• Baccalaureate degrees meeting professional degree standards are normally listed as 
Bachelor of Fine Arts, and normally require that at least 65% of the course credit be in 
theatre studies. B.F.A degrees in theatre education and certain other combined degrees in 
theatre require at least 50% of the course credit to be in theatre studies. (NAST, 2012, p. 
84) 

 
 The phrase “at least” implies that accredited programs may keep more then 65% of their 
course content/credits focused on artistic mastery if they choose (e.g. an extreme example being 
a dance program where 99% of the program is focused solely on artistic mastery). The language 
in the handbooks suggests that all courses specifically unrelated to aesthetic mastery (e.g. 
contextual business/career/technology education) should support the program as general studies 
content. The handbooks only broadly identify general studies content, purposely leaving this 
interpretation to the individual institutions. For example, the NASM handbook indicates, 



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 6. General Studies 
  a. Competencies 

Specific competency expectations are defined by the institution.  
Normally, students holding a professional undergraduate degree in 
music are expected to have: 
 
(1) The ability to think, speak, and write clearly and effectively. 
 
(2) An informed acquaintance with fields of study beyond music 
such as those in the arts and humanities, the natural and physical 
sciences, and the social sciences. 
 
(3) A functional awareness of the differences and commonalities 
regarding work in artistic, scientific, and humanistic domains. 
 
(4) Awareness that multiple disciplinary perspectives and techniques 
are available to consider all issues and responsibilities including, but 
not limited to, history, culture, moral and ethical issues, and 
decision-making. 
 
(5) The ability to identify possibilities and locate information in 
other fields that have bearing on musical questions and endeavors. 
(NASM, p. 99) 

 
 Arguably, there should be nothing “general” about the contextual 
business/career/technology education taught within professional arts training programs. All four 
NOAA handbooks expect accredited institutions to help students develop the knowledge, skills, 
concepts and sensitivities essential to the artist in their discipline-based field of study. Whether it 
is the language of the individual institution or the national or regional accrediting body, merely 
recommending that contextual business/career/technology education be taught to arts students, 
and identifying that content broadly may help to perpetuate the national perception that arts 
entrepreneurship education is helpful but non-essential to a professional artist.  
 
Barriers of Assessment 
 While arts entrepreneurship educators may be able to teach arts students in professional 
arts training programs contextual business/career/technology skills behaviors and competencies, 
national arts entrepreneurship learning will be difficult to assess and evaluate without consensus 
on formal student outcomes.1 Difficulties in the national assessment of arts entrepreneurship 
learning will only be compounded by stakeholders’ inability to agree on what “art(s) education” 
is. Groys supports this notion when he states: 
  

                                                
1 Note that at this time, there are no formally recognized outcomes for arts entrepreneurship education by an 
accreditation organization. Efforts to address this lacuna appear in College Music Society Committee on Music 
Entrepreneurship Education (2012). 



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Today art education has no definite goal, no method, no particular content that 
can be taught, no tradition that can be transmitted to a new generation—which is 
to say, it has too many. (Groys, 2009, p. 27) 

 
 Unspecified learning objectives, and immeasurable student outcomes in arts education 
programs and courses may re-enforce barriers to assessment of arts entrepreneurship learning. 
For example, Nitko & Brookhart suggest, “Proponents view assessment as an objective way to 
ensure that all students demonstrate that learning has occurred.” (Nitko & Brookhart, 2011, pg. 
9) “Students will be able to experience the beauty of the arts” is neither a specific learning 
objective nor a measurable learning outcome. Although a faculty member may understand 
exactly what that beauty means to him/herself, as well as how to evaluate the learning of it, the 
professional evaluator looks at this and thinks, “experience how?” “What type of experience?” 
“Which art forms?” “How many experiences will the students experience?” “How does the 
program define the word beauty?” “Who is determining that beauty?” 
 Though there are many who continue to engage in discourse concerning the increasing 
demands for more accountability in arts education, given the national educational policy agenda, 
the concern is here to stay. As it stands, arts entrepreneurship educators are faced with at least 
two obvious choices: resist accountability or embrace and articulate specific and measurable 
contextual business/career/technology learning objectives for arts students. If the latter, the arts 
entrepreneurship field would overcome this barrier. 
 

Conclusion 
 Although still largely informal and emerging, arts entrepreneurship may be a trans-
disciplinary approach for teaching contextual business/career/technology education to arts 
students. If this is true, “thinking and behaving as an arts entrepreneur” may be a way for 
students to overcome the limitations of DBAE curricular theory, and also a way for faculty to 
address the unanticipated or poor professional outcomes of students in professional arts training 
programs. Certainly, there is hard evidence that arts students desire the contextual 
business/career/technology education they need in order to create, obtain and sustain their 
careers. (Lindemann, et al., 2012, pg. 27-30) Arts entrepreneurship educators may be able to help 
students learn to do this, however, significant barriers keep arts entrepreneurship course content 
from being perceived as “essential” to professional arts training. Ironically, despite lackluster 
professional outcomes for alumni of professional arts training programs, there is no shortage of 
students applying to professional arts training programs. Dempster supports this notion when he 
writes:  
 

Why worry about reforming our professional training programs for musicians, 
dancers, and artists? After all, professional arts education is booming in the 
United States. We have hundreds of thousands of students registered and more 
applying each year at ever-higher tuition rates. New programs at every level are 
multiplying daily, and specialized fine and performing arts high schools are 
proliferating. In fact, I’m regularly stunned to hear about the creation of new 
doctoral programs in the arts when there are hundreds of disappointed applicants 
for every vacant college job. Enrollments in college arts curricula by some 
measures are growing faster than enrollments in the STEM (Science, Technology, 
Engineering, and Math) fields. Perhaps most intriguing of all, many of the most 



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selective private universities are rushing into the arts in a big way, upping the 
bidding contest for the country’s top students. (Dempster, 2011, p. 121) 

 
 Current technology is making the world smaller. Understanding and being able to adjust 
to the challenges and opportunities of globalization is playing an ever-increasing role in students’ 
decisions to stay as competitive as possible (whether or not that employment is arts or arts-
related). Earning a college degree is often a necessity for students, but if earning that degree does 
not open the professed or perceived professional door, the degree may appear to the student and 
public as a waste of time, money, and resources. Consider the high stakes implications reported 
from both the National Center for Educational Statistics, and Lindemann, Tepper and Gaskill: 
 

The average total cost of attendance in 2010–11 for first-time, full-time students 
living on campus and paying in-state tuition was $20,100 at public 4-year 
institutions and $39,800 at private nonprofit 4-year institutions. (Indicator 40) 
(NCES, 2012, p. 98) 
 
Levels of debt over $60,000 significantly decrease the odds of one ever working 
as a professional artist, but this is not the case for any other level of debt. 
Amounts under $60,000 may not necessarily impede individuals from becoming 
professional artists – although it may stop them from remaining professional 
artists. (Lindemann, et al., 2012, p. 24) 

 
 It appears that one of the worst outcomes for all stakeholders of professional arts training 
programs occurs when a newly graduated arts student abandons the field due to financial 
necessity. This outcome does not help increase the worth, merit or value of professional arts 
degrees but rather, devalues and demoralizes the arts student and is detrimental to the field of 
arts education, the nations’ creative and performing arts industries, and of course, the national 
economy. Beckman supports this notion when he states: 
 

We lose this nation’s arts and intellectual arts capital when talented and 
competent students relinquish their dreams of arts employment. This occurs—in 
part—because of a recalcitrant arts training infrastructure that has yet to 
acknowledge the human consequences of an idealized view of art. For every 
trained artist who cannot afford their child’s day care, we are not exposed to their 
unique view of the world. For every violinist, violist, and cellist who cannot make 
a car payment and is forced to seek employment outside music, we cannot 
experience the transcendence of Beethoven’s last string quartets. For every 
playwright who cannot find an affordable venue to premiere his or her latest 
work, a reflection of our humanity is lost among the piles of private art. As 
enlightened educators, we have a responsibility, in my opinion, to find new 
relevance in our students’ talent and exuberance about their role in society. 
(Beckman, 2011, p. 30) 

 
 Not all arts degrees lead students to artistic careers, however, students who desire self-
employment in the artistic workforce must be better prepared to create and sustain arts and arts-
related ventures in addition to recognizing opportunities across arts disciplines. To facilitate this, 



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arts training program administrators should consider arts entrepreneurship as an approach for 
teaching their students the contextual business/career/technology education they need to succeed 
as professional artists. Lastly, both arts education faculty and administrators must develop valid 
and reliable methods and tools to assess student learning and achievement in a persuasive 
manner to meet growing demands for program accountability.  
 

 
List of References 

 
Artspire. (2011). The Profitable Artist: A handbook for all Artists in the Performing, Literary, 

and Visual Arts. Kindle. NY: Allworth Press; New York Foundation For The Arts. 
Beckman, G. D. (2011). "Disciplining Arts Entrepreneurship Education: A Call to Action." In 

Beckman, G. D. Disciplining the Arts: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context. Kindle. 
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education. 

Buckley, B., & Conomos, J. (2009). Rethinking the Contemporary Art School. Halifax: The Press 
of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, n.d. 

Carnevale, A. P., Cheah, B., Strohl, J. (2012). Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and 
Earnings. Publication. Georgetown University. Washington: Georgetown University. 

Carnevale, A. P., Strohl, J., Melton, M. (2011). What's it Worth?: The economic value of college 
majors. PDF. Georgetown University. Washington: Center on Education and the 
Workforce. 2013(February 13). Retreived from 
<http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatsitworth/>. 

Cherbo, J. M., Stewart, R. A., Wyszomirski, M. J. (2008). Understanding the Arts and Creative 
Sector in the United States. Rutgers, Kindle. 

College Music Society	
  Committee on Music Entrepreneurship Education. (2012). Suggested 
Outcomes for Arts Entrepreneurship Education. 2013(Feburary 13). Retrieved from 
<http://ae2n.net/page6/styled-5/page26.html>. 

Dempster, D. (2011). "Some Inmodest Proposals (and Hunches) for Conservatory Education." In 
Beckman, Gary D. Disciplining The Arts: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context. Ed. 
Gary D. Beckman. Kindle. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield Education, 134. 

Groys, B. (2009). "Education by Infection." In Madoff, S. H. Art School: Propositions for the 
21st century. Kindle. Cambridge: MIT. 

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