Creative and lucrative: a career in arts

We often find ourselves face to face with art in various forms. Whether it is decorating a home, wearing designer clothes or even purchasing utensils and crockery for one's home— the look and feel of the artifact is important.

Art was pursued as a hobby decades ago, but over the past few years, leaps in technology have given the stream new importance. These leaps in technology have opened up avenues for art graduates in the fields of animation, design, visual art, direction, photography, audio-visual (AV), curating and art entrepreneurship.

School students who have opted to take the elementary and intermediate exams may find this exposure useful while taking admission to these courses.
Maharashtra has always had a tradition of promoting art and artists –the Ajanta Ellora caves, for example. Sir J J School of Fine Art has the distinction of churning out the best artists over the years such as SH Raza, VS Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee; and some of the best contemporary artists such as Atul Dodiya and Jitish Kallat, to name a few.

Maharashtra has four art colleges set up by the government, namely the Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai; Sir J J Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai; Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur; and the Government College of Art, Aurangabad.

Besides, the state has about 15 private degree art colleges, 31 aided and 172 non-aided colleges (most of which provide diploma courses).

Admission to the degree course, Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA), is solely by merit. To gain admission to to the course, one appears for the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the Directorate of Art in Maharashtra after the HSC exams. More details are available on their website www.doa.org.in.

The BFA is generally a four-year course, barring Teacher Training, which is of two years' duration.

Post-graduate courses, namely Masters in Fine Art (MFA), are two-year courses.

There are several diploma courses in art after SSC Board exams, too. But a one-year Foundation Course is compulsory for pursuing Drawing and Painting, Sculpture, and Applied Art.

Job opportunities are aplenty- one can either opt for teaching art in schools and colleges or can pursue a career in graphic art, advertising, or art direction. Or independent art studios can be set up to promote a career in art design, painting, etc.

Those with a degree in painting can either opt to be independent artists or take up teaching in schools and colleges. They can even opt for animation to design games for computers and mobile phones. A degree in sculpture enables one to pursue a job in 3D animation, game design or set up an independent business.

A degree in applied art opens doors to a career in an ad agency, where one can opt to be a photographer, visualiser, creative writer, illustrator, animator, display designer; or one may venture into making ad films, or designing for film or television.

A degree in ceramics enables one to design crockery, tiles, and other ceramic items.

With a degree in textiles, once can become a textile designer, dyeing master, fashion designer, and open design boutiques and showrooms.

A degree in metal work opens up options in jewellery designing.

SNDT University, too, runs its own art colleges in the cities of Pune, Mumbai and Nashik for female students. They offer a Bachelors in Visual Art (BVA) and Masters in Visual Art (MVA).

Students who get any of the above degrees are eligible for admission in IIT, NIFT, and NID courses, to pursue their Masters programme.

Prof Vishwanath Sabale, Dean, JJ School of Arts