Also called: Monument Sculptor, Public Artist
Wins commissions to design and build large sculptures and installations for parks, airports, transit stations, and city plazas.
A typical week mixes pitching proposals to city arts commissions, meeting with engineers about how a 20-foot steel piece will survive wind loads, and visiting the fabrication shop. They manage budgets of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and crews of fabricators. Installation day can involve cranes and road closures.
Estimate. Commissions range from $10k to over $1M, but much of each budget goes to materials, fabrication, and engineering. Income is lumpy: a big year may follow a lean one.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Many have an MFA; the real credential is a portfolio of completed commissions.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, Self-taught. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Sculpture, Fine Arts, Architecture, Public Art.
Growing about average. Many cities and states set aside about 1% of construction budgets for public art, creating a steady stream of commissions.
Low risk for 10 years. AI speeds proposal renderings and 3D mockups; engineering, fabrication and installing big works on real sites stay human.
Classes: AP Studio Art 3-D Design, Welding CTE class, Geometry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 27-1013.
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.