This is actually why I think the internet is a great thing--partly because it allows people to control more of their own marketing....and they can get whatever it is that they do out in front of people, make a living without having to be a household name, and do whatever the hell they want, instead of what people tell us Art with a capital A is.
BTW, the statistic I was told was 1 in 10. My graphic design teacher told me. He also told us that we needed to be prepared to deal with art financially speaking, to understand promotion, and to deal with the practicalities of business, or judge when we should take somebody on. He was very big on non-starving art, because if you starved, how would you make more? He also warned us folk in illustration and design that the BFAs would be total snots about our art, and we should probably just ignore them.
Speaking as the daughter of a scientist-turned-lawyer and the wife of a scientist-turned lawyer, the problem with science isn't just that it's not glamorized on TV--the work itself is often unrewarding and dull, with little in the way of compensation.
I agree. There's a lot more wrong with the way America treats its scientists than what I said.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the scientific grant system is the US is currently broken. The public incentives for innovation are relatively weak compared to most commercial Research and Development. This means the lion's share of scientific innovation in America is motivated by corporate interest rather than any sense of good for humanity.
This need would absolutely have to be addressed as part of an effort to glamorise science, in much the same way that media money, sponsorships, and investment tend to follow the glamorised individuals in sports and entertainment.
You know, up here in Canada it seems to balance so much differently. I have so many friends who like myself graduated in the sciences/engineering and could not find any work here. Most of them either migrated to the US where they had no trouble finding work, or ended up in entirely different fields.
That's interesting to think about. Canada's sending away its scientists and engineers because its own market is flooded. Wow.
Maybe that is an aspect of any industry-- when there are too many individuals trained for a limited job market, some of those individuals have no choice but to look for work elsewhere.
Come to think of it, that's what happened to me. (I trained in the USA in CAD/CAM, and now I work in the UK.)
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BTW, the statistic I was told was 1 in 10. My graphic design teacher told me. He also told us that we needed to be prepared to deal with art financially speaking, to understand promotion, and to deal with the practicalities of business, or judge when we should take somebody on. He was very big on non-starving art, because if you starved, how would you make more? He also warned us folk in illustration and design that the BFAs would be total snots about our art, and we should probably just ignore them.
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Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the scientific grant system is the US is currently broken. The public incentives for innovation are relatively weak compared to most commercial Research and Development. This means the lion's share of scientific innovation in America is motivated by corporate interest rather than any sense of good for humanity.
This need would absolutely have to be addressed as part of an effort to glamorise science, in much the same way that media money, sponsorships, and investment tend to follow the glamorised individuals in sports and entertainment.
Reply
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Maybe that is an aspect of any industry-- when there are too many individuals trained for a limited job market, some of those individuals have no choice but to look for work elsewhere.
Come to think of it, that's what happened to me. (I trained in the USA in CAD/CAM, and now I work in the UK.)
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