Understanding Arts Training: Beyond "Soft" Skills

I recently had a conversation with my colleague Art Esposito, director of VCU's Discovery Program for Undeclared students.  The gist of the conversation was that he has been looking for a way to help his population get their collective heads around what they will really be dealing with in the arts programs here at VCU.  What is the day-to-day reality of an art student?  What skills do you truly need to have beyond all of the technical jargon that is posted on audition and portfolio webpages?  Let's be honest, I can tell a student that he or she needs to memorize two contrasting monologues of one minute each for the Theatre Performance program...but the audition is a nanosecond of time in the course of your arts training.

All of the literature currently being provided to arts advisors (and undeclared advisors talking to arts students) talks about how students can translate their "arts" skills (i.e. "soft" skills) into the business world.  Yes, arts students are generally better at critical thinking, communicating and understanding ideas, collaboration, leadership (beat THAT Business majors!!), and public speaking.  But there are skills that we are forgetting; skills that we aren't viewing in the right light, that will provide clues to BOTH of these problems.

Idea Synthesis.  Can you compile data (in text, image, sound, etc. form) and synthesize it into new and compelling ways?  You'll have to do that in dance, graphic arts, fashion, film, music, and theatre.  Oh, and you'll probably need those skills in the business world too!

Focus.  No one focuses (when they want to) like an arts student.  Are you capable of spending 3 hours at a time standing in front of a mirror working on the position of your feet like my dancers do?  Are you willing to spend 20+ man-hours on one project like a graphic arts student?  That focus comes in handy when you are given a task to do in a 9-to-5 job too!

Visualization/Interpretation.  Do you see a constant movie in your head?  Now can you, with deliberation and accuracy, slow down the movie and notate everything that is happening?  My film majors can.  This ability to visualize an artistic ideal is necessary for every artist (the artist should say to him or herself, "THIS is how I want it to be, " and then make that particular thing happen.)  The ability to visualize ideas is vital for everyone, no matter where they work.

Physical Mirroring/Detailed Correcting.  Most artists understand that the smallest features in their work can help them attain perfection.  The ability to look at something, identify a specific problem, and correct it on a finite scale is vital to the artist AND to the working professional.

Specificity.  When an artist walks into a room and participates in "group work", you will hear them say (with alarming frequency), "give me the specifics...Let's talk about THIS THING..."  The ideas of focus and detailed correcting I talked about earlier will always color an artist's view on any given project.  They are capable of focusing in, and correcting, specific areas of a project (be it a concerto, a monologue, a pas de deux, a painting, etc.)  This specific, focused approach is part of our artistic methodology.  You cannot, as a musician, work on an entire symphony at one time.  You have to work in pieces.


So what will students be doing in the arts besides learning music, painting pictures, and telling stories?  They'll be focusing on their work in the most intimate ways possible.  They'll be opening up their minds and (more painfully) their hearts to the creative process.  They will be allowing others to judge their work and they will be judging others (you non-arts people call that "critical thinking").  They'll spend hours in front of mirrors.  And they'll know their strengths and weaknesses better than someone with an Accounting degree...but at the end of the day, they'll still be able to sit down and work with someone with an Accounting degree.