Role Models in Art Careers Around the World

Every day, new career opportunities emerge in different fields, creating endless opportunities for children to consider for their futures. While having many choices is important, it is also necessary for children to have role models and examples to look up to.

The Beauty of Art and Careers

Katie Brickner is Scholastic ART Magazine's Executive Editor. Brickner has edited all kinds of stories from interviews with artists and art teachers to museum and theme park coverage. She enjoys discovering new perspectives in art and showing readers the importance of exploring different career fields. Brickner shared, “The thing that’s really magical about art is that it is really a representation of the time and place in which it’s made.”

Brickner explained how “seeing art, through the act of making, also really encourages creativity in a different type of thinking and a different skillset than what you get in other classrooms.” That is what makes it exciting. Art allows people to create their own definitions where every interpretation is welcome.

Brickner sharing her love of art with her daughter at the Hood Museum in New Hampshire looking at sculptures by Jeffrey Gibson and Nick Cave (credit: Katie Brickner).

Different Scales of Art

An example of a career role model Brickner and her team might interview is Eva Cancino Fuentes. Cancino is the Head of Collections at the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, and her job is to manage where artworks are being stored, displayed or lent internationally. She has worked on many projects at the local and international levels, making her job different and challenging, yet rewarding. One of her favorite projects was seeing how the “embroiderers of the entire town of Isla Negra [in Chile] came together to create a piece that measured about 2 meters tall and 18 meters wide.” She said this process was really compelling because it connected people from different countries, as the embroidered art was sent to the Biennale in Venice, Italy, one of the largest annual international art exhibitions.

In the museum, it is crucial to take care of Chile’s history. Children can learn from this by taking care of what is important to them and can discover their interests by asking questions and observing the details of what they are learning.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Sofi Cortes inside the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts (credit: Sofi Cortes).

Finding Careers

The Scholastic ART Magazine has a “Careers in Art” section that allows students to learn about different opportunities. Brickner has had the chance to write stories about different careers including ones where STEAM meets design such as medical illustration, green architecture, being an animator at NASA, and even being head of Sneaker Design at Nike.

Brickner shared advice to children interested in a career in art, saying to “be really open minded about your options, because there’s creativity in everything.” Cancino shared how “it is important to not restrict imagination just because something is not necessarily realistic or pretty.” She added that children should always dive deeper into what they are interested in because not all stories are told the same. The possibilities for their future are endless and can vary from becoming an educator, theme park ride designer, to even an art museum worker or magazine editor.