Stop apologising for your arts degree

Stand out with an arts degree. Image via www.artrebels.com

After revealing you study humanities, arts students are all too familiar with being shot a confused look followed by the firing of denigrating questions about their decision – ‘How do you plan to get a job after your degree?’, ‘What does an arts degree even teach you?’, ‘Are you just buying time while you figure out what you actually want to do with your life?’ 

Humanities 21 – a non-for-profit organisation championing the benefits of the humanities – set up a panel discussion as part of Melbourne Knowledge Week to crystallise why you should stop apologising for your arts degree, and start singing its praises.

Chair Hannie Rayson, the author of fourteen plays including Hotel Sorrento, and panellists Karen Hitchcock and Lisa Gorton, candidly discussed how their humanities backgrounds helped their careers, along with the benefits an underpinning in the arts can bring to all aspects of commercial and contemporary life.