Arts and Design Alumni Employment and Perspectives on Their Work and Careers

The upheavals of the last few years within higher education and the labor force have catalyzed leaders in arts and design postsecondary education to question assumptions within their institutions about ​“what it means to be embarking on a career and life” in arts and design today (Novak-Leonard, Dempster, Scotto Adams, & Walters, 2022, p. 9). Ultimately, the questions being raised seek to better understand what constitutes ​“success” for alumni and who is determining those terms of success in the current, evolving contexts of education and work.

To inform these critical considerations about student outcomes and notions of ​“success,” this report uses data from the 2022 Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey to provide insights on the most recently measured employment outcomes for alumni of arts and design postsecondary programs and alumni reflections on their work and careers, including satisfaction with different aspects of their work and careers. The 2022 SNAAP survey asked alumni of postsecondary arts, design, and adjacent programs about their employment as of September 2022, and about their perspectives on connections between their postsecondary arts and design training and their employment and the development of their careers during Fall 2022.