About 600,000 students taking art classes to earn a college degree
Hart calculated this estimate from Artists & Art Materials USA 2009 artist survey data, as follows: 2,714 active artists responded to the survey. 14% indicated they were taking art classes at a college or university to earn a degree. Hart estimated there were 4.4 million active artists in the USA in 2008. (See page 9.) 14% of 4.4 million is about 616,000. This number is similar to the number of students enrolled in visual and performing arts. (See below.)
Comparison: 664,000 students enrolled in visual and performing arts (NCES)
The National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) indicated there were 664,000 students enrolled in postsecondary schools in the field of visual and performing arts in 2003–2004. At the 1% growth rate for college enrollment in general, this would be about 700,000 in 2008–2009. Note this includes many majors other than fine art. This is the college group, however, that would be most likely to enroll in art classes. (Source: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/ tables/dt07_222.asp)
Core group: 122,000 students pursuing degrees in art (NCES)
In the field of fine art in particular, Hart calculated there were 122,000 students pursuing associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degrees in art in 2008–2009, based on the NCES Digest of Education Statistics. (See page 12 for fields of study included for art.) Hart calculated the 122,000 total by taking the number of degrees conferred within the discipline of art for bachelor’s degrees (25,756), master’s degrees (2,954), doctorate degrees (20), and associate’s degrees (1,758) in 2006–2007. The total for each type of degree was multiplied by the typical number of years taken to obtain it. The number of art students increased by 4% per year in 2000–2006, so the totals were then multiplied by 1.08 to determine the 2008–2009 total.
Artist population growth 1% or more per year
About 600,000 artists that sold most of their work