Creative Careers for Children

I belong to a generation where choosing a creative career was uncommon, it was reserved for those who cannot get anywhere else. I always knew I wanted to have a creative career, my parents were also prepared I would take up a creative career. Despite the popular notion against creative careers, my parents gladly supported choosing Fine Arts as my choice for graduate degree. I knew it was my calling and as did they. I took admission in a Fine Arts college and went on to study Visual Art.

That was almost two decades ago. However, I have noticed that, though things seem to have changed for the good, parents are still skeptical about choosing a creative career for their children. I have firm belief that creativity is required in all aspects of life. By creativity do not misconstrue it to be drawing and painting, creativity is about thought and approach, about having the ability to attempt the unknown. So if your child is creative then you should be glad and try and identify that spark in the child.

Creativity is not restricted to what one can create, creativity is an integral part of what one can market, produce, expand, experiment and collaborate. There are numerous options available for the child to experience and utilize creativity. There are a myriad of courses specifically designed for this purpose, to name a few, apart from the obvious Fine Arts, one can explore course like fashion design, fashion styling, fashion marketing, communication design, product design, interior/spatial design in Visual Arts. In Language and Communication Arts one can look at Media, journalism, advertising and marketing.

A parent should analyze the child’s aptitude towards creativity and infer what direction the child should take for their future. Adolescents today are more aware of their options and find out more even before the parent would be able to understand regarding the kind of future work the child would want to do.

The best would be to study the courses offered in detail and take the child’s interest into account. You may want to gauge whether the child wants to be a creator or be part of the production process or would want to market creations. Options are open for studying any of these subjects as a specialization.

Let the mundane be with the mundane and support your child in her/his dream to be a part of the creative world, it’s a whole wide world with many avenues that has the potential for a sustained, fulfilling and lucrative career.

Image Courtesy (inside images) -Pearl Academy, Mumbai Campus