• Artists tell you what they do. You get to try making
  • art
  • dance
  • music
  • theatre

• Check out your interests so you can start thinking about the arts as something you might want to do when you grow up.

Teacher’s guide

Students > Careers > What Artists Do

What Artists Do

Click on the career. Do what the artist does.

Book Illustrator
Look at the wonderful pictures in your favorite picture book. An artist painted them.

Muralist
Muralists are artists that make big paintings on a wall. Often, these paintings tell a story. Many public buildings have murals. Here is a mural painted by elementary school children and another mural painted by an artist living in Tempe, Arizona.

Check out murals in Tucson, Arizona. http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/folkarts/murals.html

And in San Francisco, California http://www.talamasca.com/~cuccia/photos/coit/

Web Site Designer



Jeffery Domke

As a web site designer at ASU, my responsibilities include creating new web pages and updating existing ones. Most of my work is trying to define what my clients and users needs are and then create a design that will meet those needs. This career allows me to express my creativity and use the latest computer technologies.

Museum Curator
Have you been to a museum? A museum curator helps to take care of and display what you saw.

Heather Lineberry ASU Art Museum curator

As a curator at the ASU Art Museum, my responsibilities include organizing art exhibitions and working with our permanent collection. Most of my exhibitions are of contemporary art -- art being made today. I work with the artist to select the work and present it to the public with catalogs, brochures, lectures and events.

Dance

Modern Dancers


People have danced since the beginning of time. Modern dance is quite a new way of dancing. It uses the body in a very free way to explore time, space and movement.

Costume Designer

Designing costumes (deciding what they will look like) is one of the most interesting jobs in dance and theatre. The designer needs to find out about the dance or the play. He or she then needs to decide what the dancer or actor will wear. Will it be party clothes, or work clothes? What colors will look best?

Dance Teacher

Dance teachers make up lessons for their students to learn about dance and how to dance. They help their students find ways to use time, space and movement to express their ideas. They often demonstrate, show, the students ideas to use in their dances. Sometimes they may dance with their students to help them learn. Many schools want dance teachers.

Music

Click on the career. Do what the artist does.

Composer http://www.creatingmusic.com
Composers make up music. They write music for people to sing. They write music for musicians to play on the piano or a horn or a violin. Some composers make up music to play on objects you can find at home.

Church Organist
Kimberly Marshall playing the organ



I give concerts on the pipe organ. I am invited to concert halls, churches and universities all over the world to perform on the organ.

Instrumentalist http://www.datadragon.com/education/instruments
Musicians learn to play many different kinds of instruments. They can learn to make music by blowing into a horn, by stroking a bow across the strings of a violin, by using their fingers to play a piano. They have to learn about music, but they also have to practice on their instrument. Musicians practice everyday to make certain they play the notes just the way the composer wanted them to be played.

Click on Instrumentalist to find out about the four different kinds of instruments.

Marina Beck with, a flute player



Music has brought endless amounts of joy to my life. I am looking forward to a career where I can love the work I do everyday.

Theater

Click on the career. Do what the artist does.

Playwright
Playwrights make up plays for actors to perform for an audience. They get to choose what characters (who) will be in the play. They choose the setting (where the play will take place). They choose the problem or story for the play. They write what the characters say.

David Saar, playwright and artistic director of Childsplay



Actor
Katie McFadzen, Childsplay actor

As a theatre performer, my job is to communicate a story to an audience! I do that by using my voice, body and imagination to become someone other than myself.

Before I can perform in a play, I have to rehearse. Rehearsal includes learning the blocking (movement) and if it is a musical, learning the music and choreography (dancing). I usually rehearse a play for about 3 or 4 weeks, 5 to 6 days a week, 6 to 8 hours a day. I have homework, too, which includes memorizing my lines and blocking.

Before we can perform, we have to go through technical rehearsals. That’s where we add lights, sound, scenery and costumes to the play.

The only thing left is the audience! Once the play opens, we usually perform 10 to 12 times a week for 3 or 4 weeks! While it’s a fun job, it is a lot of work.

Oh, and don’t think we make money like the movie stars! The money we make is enough to live on. Most theatre performers make about the same or less as teachers do.

Puppeteer
Gordon Hensley and one of his puppets.

Check out his web site http://cre8tivedrama.freeservers.com/puppetry