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Contemporary Arts in Canada



Art Degrees That Have a Bright Career Future

If you have a special talent or plan to pursue a degree in arts, there is plenty of choice, including fine and visual arts, and a lot more. Doctoral, Master’s, and Bachelor degrees in arts are offered in Canada. And the good news is that there is high demand for abilities and skills that liberal arts education develops.

Degrees with Bright Future

Students can choose from a wide array of subjects and disciplines such as landscape architecture, interior design, industrial design, graphic design, and fashion design. Programs in landscape architecture, for example, teach students a number of skills to work as conservationists, mediators, and designers. Programs in landscape architecture focus on woody plant selection, grounding, site assembly and site engineering, landscape establishment, and more. Canadian universities also offer degrees in graphic design that cover a range of subjects, including interactive design, multimedia, poster design, illustration, packaging, corporate identity, editorial design, publication, and a lot more. Students are taught a range of subjects such as emerging and digital media design, visible language for publications, visual communications design, and principles of photography. Students can choose from core and selective courses such as image making, graphic design history, visual communication design, visual concepts, and studio television production. There are also programs in fashion design for students who plan to work as product managers, textile designers, pattern designers, illustrators, and visual merchandisers. Fashion designers also work as accessories designers, stylists, coolhunters, and so on. Students choose from a large variety of subjects such as contemporary fashion and trends, history of fashion and arts history, introduction to color, and materials and technology, among others. Many universities also offer courses in pattern, cutting, and tailoring, dressmaking, and fashion drawing.

Other Arts Degrees and Career Outcomes

Universities in Canada are free to choose from a great variety of programs, courses, and degrees, including theatre and dance, music history, music, art history, architecture, and many others. They learn and master skills such as creative problem solving, social and interpersonal skills, and ingenuity and creativity. Students who graduate have access across industries and sectors, including public relations, marketing, media, and architecture, to name a few. Businesses, agencies and non-for-profits are also looking for animators, arts administrators, heritage managers, and fine artists. Art jobs also include positions such as music performance lecturer, conservation technician, learning session leader, and theatre technician. Salaries vary across sectors and are based on region and experience. For graphic artists, for example, the salary varies from about $30,000 to about $60,000. The average salary you can expect is close to $41,000. The pay you can get as an arts director varies from about $40,500 to close to $82,700. The average salary for this position in Canada is $60,158, but there are bonuses as well. Bonuses can be as high as $10,256. Career paths include creative director, art director, marketing manager, and senior art director. Art teachers in Canada get $46,452 a year on average, and the maximum salary is $87,930 a year. Again, there are bonuses as well as dental, vision, and medical health benefits. Finally, there are some less traditional jobs and occupations to look into. You can become a tattoo artist, for example, and earn up to $100,000 if you are good at what you do.

Contemporary Arts in Canada

Contemporary arts are represented by genres such as plastic and visual arts, including sculpture, printmaking, photography, painting, and others. The works of contemporary painters, sculptors, and painters covers a variety of themes and is influenced by the unique history and cultural heritage of Canada, including waves of immigration and the First Nations People.

The Group of Seven

The Group of Seven consisted of landscape painters such as LeMoine FitzGerald, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer, and Frank Johnston. Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, for example, was a teacher and painter who became famous for his painting Doc Snyder’s House. Frank Johnson, also a member of the Group of Seven, was also a Canadian artist and a prolific painter with over 250 paintings during his lifetime. He produced paintings such as The Guardian of the Gorge, Sunset in the Bush, A Northern Light, The Fire Ranger, Near the Berry Patch, and many others. He is world famous for landscapes such as Fire-Swept, Sopwith Camel Looping, and The Fire Ranger. The Group of Seven also consisted of Canadian artists such as Alfred Joseph Casson, Alexander Young Jackson, and James Edward Hervey MacDonald, the latter of whom is credited for initiating the Canadian national art movement.

Visual and Performing Arts in Canada

Ceramicists have already began to show interest in Canada’s nature and rugged landscape by the 70s. Artists such as Walter Dexter, Robin Hopper, Les Manning, and John Chalke created shapes incorporating elements that mimic the horizons, striations, and cracks of the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian Shield. During the 80s, Canadian ceramicists began to use random objects, moulds, and hand techniques. “Sloppy” craft appeared on the scene in the 21st century, with loose handling of clay. Artists such as Robin Lambert, Rory MacDonald, Linda Sormin, and Alwyn O’Brien use this technique. Other forms of art that underwent transformation are conceptual, environmental, and body art, collage, and correspondence and performance art. Environmental art, for example, aims to raise awareness of environmental issues and focuses on landscapes. Artists such as Irene Whittome showcase installations with colors and objects that show her feelings about different cities, rooms, spaces, and places. Performance art is a type of a hybrid form through which artists re-enact different events, phenomena, or happenings. Bruce Barber, for example, centers his performance on media and sociopolitical content. Installation artists focus on historical events and identity and cultural constructs. Well known installation artists in Canada include names such as Rodney Graham, John McEwen, and Faye Heavyshield, among others.

Many First Nations artists also use alternative art forms and mixed installations to convey their feelings and incorporate elements of their mythology and tradition. Such artists include a number of women as well, for instance, Debra Sparrow, Theresa Marshall, Joane Cardinal-Schubert, and others. There are other contemporary forms of art in Canada such as graphic, indigenous, and decorative arts, painting, etc. War art is a form embraced by artists such as John William Beatty, Pegi Nicol MacLeod, Carl Fellman Schaefer, and Molly Joan Bobak, among others. The Canadian War Museum showcases objects and artifacts that illustrate the country’s military history and features a number of special exhibitions. Special exhibitions focus on major events such as the Second World War, the Cold War, Canada’s early wars, and the First World and South African Wars. The Liberation Gallery of the Museum features a rich collection of artifacts, including military equipment, vehicles, weapons, and a lot more. The Gallery helps visitors to learn more about the technology and tools that Canadians used in times of conflict and war.