Also called: Studio Art Professor, Fine Arts Faculty
Teaches painting, drawing, sculpture, or art history at a college while making and exhibiting their own art.
Mornings might be a three-hour figure-drawing studio where they walk between easels giving feedback. Afternoons go to critiques, committee meetings, and advising seniors on thesis shows. Evenings and summers are for their own studio practice, because tenure depends on exhibiting.
Figures are for all postsecondary art, drama, and music teachers. Full-time tenure-track jobs are scarce; many artists teach as lower-paid adjuncts.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. MFA (Master of Fine Arts) is the standard terminal degree; a strong exhibition record matters as much as the degree.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Studio Art, Fine Arts, Art History, Sculpture, Painting.
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). Competition for tenure-track studio art jobs is intense.
Low risk for 10 years. AI drafts syllabi and rubrics; live studio critique, mentoring students and the professor's own exhibited work stay human.
Classes: AP Studio Art, AP Art History, Drawing and painting electives.
Official data: O*NET occupation 25-1121.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.