How to make yourself Marketable in Art Education

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1) Have experience working with children.

In any type of Education position, including Art Education, the school’s principal and administration will want to see that the individual they are interviewing has experience working with children. Many teachers have worked with students during their student teaching experience, however the more experience of working with children the better you look. After all, you are interviewing to work with children.

Idea’s for more experience working with children:

– Volunteer: Many park districts have events during the summer that ask for volunteers. One example I can think of is the Special Olympics.

– Full-time/Part-time Positions: A few examples are a Summer Camp Counselor or Before/After School Program. If you are not a full-time employee many park districts offer summer camps and during the school year many have a before/after school programs to get involved in. Other locations to find positions that involve working with kids are: local gyms, museums, sporting facilities (park district), and the old stand-by of babysitting.

2) Ask Professors about Internships and other opportunities.

From my past experience, the professors at Columbia College are very well connected to other schools and organizations that deal with your major. If they are not giving you updates on events or internships then just ask. In my experience, my professors at Columbia always emailed me about internships/events at various places such as the Art Institute.

In addition, in one of the Technology classes in the Art Education MAT program you are set-up to work on a Museum Partnership. In this project you are asked to incorporate technology in various programs at the Museum you are assigned too. I was assigned to the Shedd Aquarium, however other students in my class were assigned to the Art Institute and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

3) Get familiar with the Chicago Artist Resource.

http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/

This website is a great tool to scope out Chicago’s new jobs, internships, events, or calls for artists in various mediums such as: Visual, Music, Dance, Theater, and Literacy.

4) Check out Museum Websites for Internships, Part-time/Full-time positions, and Volunteer work.