Rick Goodstein and Ron McCurdy
A Guide for Musicians and Artists to Develop and Sustain a Career
The majority of college graduates in music, arts, dance and theatre are not able to sustain a career in their chosen field of study, with the exception of those entering arts education fields, is undeniable. Colleges and universities have failed to provide their students with the tools and training to navigate the skills needed for a 21st Century arts career.
In our book, The Artist Entrepreneur, we outline some of the failures of the current arts curricula in higher education and offer both some remedies for fixing a broken system and some specific methods that students and young professional artists can develop the skills that are necessary to thrive in this new arts environment.
Be assured, we are not preaching doom and gloom for those who want to pursue an arts career. In fact, with an approximate $877B contribution to the United States gross domestic product, a 4.2% contribution there are literally millions of opportunities to make a living in the arts. Also, this data, from 2020, was partially impacted by the pandemic. As the performing arts first industry was the first to close during the shutdown and relatively late to recover and is only now regaining full momentum. What we do want to preach is the “new normal” and changing landscape of a sustainable career in the arts.
We should digress at this point to partially share our credentials with you. Richard (Rick) Goodstein, is Dean Emeritus from the Clemson University College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. During his almost 40-year career at Clemson, Rick had a variety of positions, including marching band director, director of bands, chair of the department of performing arts and dean. Additionally, he served for 11 years as the Director of Walt Disney World All-American College Band and for 30 years as a consultant to the arts entertainment division at Disney.
Ron McCurdy serves as Professor of Music and Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Southern California. 2024 marks the 40th year of serving as an artist, educator, and artistic thought leader. He served as Director of the Disney All-American College Band and for over 30 years. He served as the Director of the Grammy National Vocal Jazz and Combo for over 20 years. In 1999-2001, McCurdy served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute). He continues to tour his multimedia Langston Hughes Project. McCurdy is a performing artist for the Yamaha Corporation.Starving Artists 1080px Audio
It is instructive to recall a 2004 longitudinal study conducted by Daniel J. Wakin of the New York Times, titled the Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later. In short, the article revisited Juilliard graduates from the class of 1994 and provided a sobering report on where they ended up. A large percentage were no longer involved in music, many spoke of being naïve about the music profession, and some became disillusioned and finally decided to pursue other interests. Some just needed a job that allowed them to pay the bills. The article speaks volumes on how many students are ill-prepared for sustained careers in the arts. While some students simply did not have the “grit” and dedication to make it as performers, the study also showed that many others simply lacked the knowledge of how and where to mount a career in the arts.
The stark reality is that a strictly performance-based arts degree does not guarantee a sustained career in the performing arts. Performance graduates find bits and pieces of low paying and often transient jobs that ultimately lead to burnout and disillusionment. Arts educators should no longer ask students to continue an endless cycle of rehearsals leading to (admittedly) extraordinarily high-quality performances for dwindling audiences and a rather striking separation from actual career preparation. Today’s graduates are too narrowly trained within the framework of an arts education that has become quickly outdated.
We want to be clear, in our upcoming blog posts and podcasts, we will do our best to relate to musicians, visual artists, actors, technicians, dancers and choreographers, and other arts-based professionals. While we are both musicians, we have both worked with and learned from arts professionals across many disciplines and believe we can speak authoritatively about career opportunities for artists through a multitude of disciplines.
We hope you will join us in our journey. We believe, after a combined 80 years of professional experience, that we can share some of our beliefs, successes, and failures so that you can jump start your next steps to a sustainable career in the arts.
Let’s Go!!!
Rick and Ron