1) How do art students describe a connection with their learning? 2) In what
way do art students take an active role in their learning? 3) How do the career dreams of art
students’ relate to the ongoing art career preparation and its expected or desired outcomes? 4)
What strategies do arts students use to pursue their academic course of study, and how does this
choice build the perseverance necessary for these students to achieve their artistic goals?
Participants in this study provided rich, real-world examples related to their art pursuits
during and after high school. One disturbing finding concerned the depiction of arts education in
comparison of other educational pursuits. Here, arts education fell by the wayside as other more
“academic” pursuits came to the fore. Because these students’ futures depended on their
becoming artists, giving arts education short shrift threatened these students’ futures.
Mulberry’s interview touched on the essence of the study. On her own she decided what
she wanted out of life. She was a student who could have pursued any career pathway with solid
grades, confidence, and a sense of determination to guide her. She stated that the “most
significant choice I made that affected my education was researching what I was going to do
when high school was over.” She did not dream about what she wanted, she got out there and
made it happen. She talked about researching “kind of jobs I might want to do that fit with my
interests and abilities.” Here, she found “all kinds of jobs that I didn’t even know existed” like so
many other creative students would discover, if given the chance.
Mulberry respected her family and wanted them to support her goals even though she