Career Development
You can do almost anything with an art degree. Check out all the different jobs our alumni hold. To prepare for a career after graduation, you can take advantage of our professional practice class, internships and independent study, student and freelance jobs, fellowships and residencies, Medici Circle and alumni network.
- Professional Practice Class
- Internships & Independent Study
- Jobs & Other Opportunities
- Alumni Network
- Medici Scholars
- Arts Administration Minor
Professional Practice Class
The School of Art recently revised its BFA curriculum to make a professional practice class a requirement for all majors, regardless of concentration. The course — Career Development for Visual Artists (ART 496A) — introduces strategies for developing portfolios and career avenues in the arts.
Students learn how to develop artist statements and methods of presenting their work — and how to apply for artist grants, residencies, exhibitions, graduate schools and art-related jobs. They also visit museums, galleries and professional artist studios, and meet curators. The new course was inspired by the school’s spring 2023 Student Development Series, which include five workshops:
- Life Lessons from Art Alumni: Zoom video
- Career Paths for Artists: Narrated PowerPoint
- Marketing for Artists: Narrated PowerPoint
- Working with Galleries: Audio and Resource Guide
- Legal Tools for Protecting Your Work: Powerpoint and Audio
Internships & Independent Study
Approved internships can qualify for academic credit, as learning by doing is what our students do best. Over half our majors participate in internships before they graduate. To find internship opportunities, talk to your Academic Advisor and make sure to check the “Student Newsletter” in your school email each week.
Once you’ve found the right position for you, submit the paperwork via Adobe Sign. Similarly, undergraduate and graduate art students can both qualify to earn academic credit by completing an independent study. You’ll need to propose your independent project to a professor, who must agree to supervise your work.
Read this story: “Internships give students insight into professional world
School of Art students can find local internships at organizations or non-profits, such as:
- African American Museum of Southern Arizona
- Arizona Historical Society
- Arizona State Museum
- Asthma & Airway Disease Research Center (UAHS)
- Ben’s Bells
- Center for Creative Photography
- Coit Museum of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- Darkroom at the School of Art
- Digital Print Studio at the School of Art
- Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium
- GeoDecor Fossil and Mineral Lab
- Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
- LetterPress at the School of Art
- Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures
- Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
- Museum of Optics, College of Optical Science
- Pay It Forward Tucson, Inc.
- Remember When… Photography
- Rialto Theatre
- Sculpture Tucson
- Silhouette Photography
- Sonoran Institute
- The Drawing Studio
- Tucson Museum of Art
- UA Biosphere 2
- UA Campus Health
- UA Campus Recreation
- UA Digital Humanities
- University of Arizona Athletics
- University of Arizona International
- University of Arizona Museum of Art
- Western Archaeological Conservation Center (WACC)
- Within Studio
For Internships: We will be using Adobe Sign.
- Provide your supervisor’s name and email.
- Provide faculty sponsor’s name.
- Email Wilma Pinedo, wpinedo@arizona.edu with the information above and we will send you the form from Adobe Sign.
- You will fill in the information for the student, when you have completed your information, submit it.
- The form will be routed to your Supervisor, who will fill in their information, sign the document, then submit it. Your supervisor may also attach a job description at this point in the process.
- After your supervisor has signed, the form will be routed to your faculty sponsor. They will sign before the form returns to Art Advising to be processed and added to your schedule.
- Be on the lookout for a confirmation email that the Internship has been added to your schedule. If you do not receive a confirmation email, then your internship has not been added to your schedule.
Credit hours: The student will earn one hour of academic credit for every 45 hours (3 hours per week) per semester of supervised work. Fall and spring semesters are each fifteen weeks. The usual number of hours is 9 hours of work per week per semester for 3 semester credit units. The maximum number of work hours that may be required is 270 per semester for six credit units.
*Summer Sessions are 5 weeks long; 1 credit unit would require 9 hours a week. 3 credit units would require 27 hours work per week.
For Independent Studies: We will be using Adobe Sign.
- Provide your faculty member’s name and email.
- Email Wilma Pinedo, wpinedo@arizona.edu with the information above and we will send you the form from Adobe Sign.
- You will fill in the information for the student; when you have completed your information, submit it.
- The form will be routed to your faculty sponsor to sign.
- They will sign before the form returns to Art Advising to be processed and added to your schedule.
- Be on the lookout for a confirmation email that the Independent Study has been added to your schedule. If you do not receive a confirmation email, then your Independent Study has not been added to your schedule.
Credit hours: The student will earn one hour of academic credit for every 45 hours (3 hours per week) per semester of supervised work. Fall and spring semesters are each fifteen weeks. The usual number of hours is 9 hours of work per week per semester for 3 semester credit units. The maximum number of work hours that may be required is 270 per semester for six credit units.
*Summer Sessions are 5 weeks long; 1 credit unit would require 9 hours a week. 3 credit units would require 27 hours work per week.
LinkedIn and Indeed are two other options in finding an internship. Students also can connect with alums and professionals on the School of Art LinkedIn page.
• How to search for an internship
Indeed
Jobs, Opportunities & Resources
The School of Art and the University of Arizona offer numerous employment opportunities for student workers through Handshake. In addition, students can apply for national/international fellowships, residencies and internships, and for national grants and scholarships.
Handshake is a free online career hub that gives all students access to campus jobs, internship postings, career fair and employer events, employer pages with peer reviews, and more.
Go to the School of Art’s Gallery Praxis to check out our ongoing list of residencies, funding and resources — both locally and nationally.
These links also can help:
- The AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts
- American Association of University Women
- Ant Farm Nebraska
- Fire Island Artist Residency
- Kala Artist Residency Program
- 18th Street Arts Center Residency
- The Abbey Scholarship and Fellowships in Painting
- Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency
- CCA Kitakyushu
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts Prague Residency
- The Chinati Foundation’s Artists in Residence Program
- Center for Contemporary Printmaking Residency
- The Center for Photography at Woodstock Residency
- Djerassi Residency
- Fabric Workshop and Museum Apprentice Training Program
- Philadelphia Art Museum Fellowship Listings
- Res Artis Global Interns in Residence Program
- The White Page Residency Program
- Vermont Studio Center Artist & Writer Residency
- Women’s Studio Workshop
- American Academy in Rome Fellowships
- ACRE Residency
- Adobe Creative Residency
- Artist in Residence at USF Bergen
- Asian Cultural Council Residency
- Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship
- Exploratorium Exploratorium’s Artist-in-Residence Program
- Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco Internship
- Headlands Residency and Fellowships
- Lightwork Artist in Residence Program
- Minnesota Center for Book Arts Residency and Fellowship
- Lower East Side Printshop Internship
- Ragdale Foundation Residency Program
- Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program
- Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Residency
- The Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence Program
- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA)
- Virtual Studies Workshop Project Space Residency
- The Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowships In Art
Alumni Network
We have an impressive roster of alumni who made their mark across various creative industries. Icons like Kristen Wiig and the late Linda McCartney studied at the School of Art. So did top Tucson muralists Jessica Gonzales, Joe Pagac and Danny Martin, and award-winning illustrators Adam Rex, Chris Gall and Brian Stauffer. Cutting-edge artists Lucy Raven and Scooter Laforge and scholar Cherise Smith are all former Wildcats, while Tom Chilton was one of three designers of “World of Warcraft.”
Some of those alumni and others are more than willing to talk to students. Join our School of Art LinkedIn page to connect with them, and learn more about their professional careers by clicking on:
Medici Scholars
The Medici Circle supports talented young artists and scholars with a $1,000 award to pursue educational projects in the summer. For many, these opportunities would be financially unattainable without the award, making these valuable summer intensives possible. In the summer of 2024, over 60 students qualified.
Medici scholar Ling-Yu Chou, a third-year PhD student in Art & Visual Culture Education with a minor in East Asian Studies, presented at the United States Society for Education through Art Conference in Santa Fe. Her project, “Bridging Cultures through Art: East Asian Ink Painting in the Southwest Landscape,” explores art’s role in fostering cross-cultural dialogue and addressing cultural crises through creativity.
Arts Administration Minor
The Arts Administration Minor is an 18-unit program that equips students with skills in fundraising, marketing, programming, and community engagement for creative organizations.
Partnered with Eller College of Management, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and other colleges, it offers practical coursework and career insights through internships and professional experiences in theaters, galleries, festivals, and more, preparing students for roles in non-profit and market-driven arts organizations.
The required coursework includes three foundation courses, two explorations courses, and one internship or practical study. Among the choices for explorations courses is ART 497A Gallery Management.
