What are careers in fine arts?

Museum curator, studio artist, and art director are careers in fine arts.

• Museum Curator

  A museum curator oversees museum collections by managing the acquisition, preservation, and display of museum artifacts.

  For any museum, attracting visitors is essential. To that end, it is a museum curator's job to build an impressive collection that will draw in visitors. They have to continue to bring in new artwork and other displays to keep things fresh and draw in repeat visitors. This can require research on the part of the museum curator to create new collections.

  Many of the items in a museum are highly valuable or even priceless due to their age. A museum curator is responsible for ensuring that these artifacts are handled and displayed in a way that keeps them safe. They oversee the item's documentation and conduct research on the collection and packaging of items being transported.

  One of the most important aspects of a museum curator's job is to catalog all of the museum's acquisitions and note what is owned by the museum versus what is on loan from a collector or other organization. This can be a huge undertaking depending on the size of the museum, and requires exceptional organizational skills.

  For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has over 2 million works of art in its collection and an entire staff that is dedicated to keeping track of their exhibitions.

• Studio Artist

  A studio artist creates pieces using mediums like ceramics, paintings, or photography. Their job is to create visual art in their chosen medium. They may sell their work to a museum or gallery representatives or use their skills to teach other artists how to master their art.

  Photographers can sell their photos on digital image sites like Getty Images or Alamy Stock Images. They can also work as stock photographers or assignment photographers. Most fine art studio artists choose to work as freelance artists as this gives them more control over what happens with their art.

• Art Director

  Art directors are responsible for the visual style and images that you will see in magazines and newspapers or other mediums like product packaging or movie and television productions. They create the overall design for a project and work with their teams to develop artwork and layouts.

  They can work directly for advertising or public relations firms, newspaper or magazine publishers, or specialized design services firms. It is also common to see them in the theater, motion picture, and video industries.

  They need to understand the design elements of projects, inspire the creative work of others, and keep projects on time and on budget. Their daily responsibilities can include: