Setting yourself apart from other degree holders in the arts is crucial. We spoke to the cofounder of a student-led exhibition in Glasgow about taking initiative and creating your own opportunities.
Completing a degree and looking out into the current, infamously competitive job market is a relatable experience for a lot of young adults in modern Britain.
Those taking more traditional degrees may hope to climb the corporate ladder filled with assessment centres and graduate roles in London’s high rises. But with recent statistics indicating that unemployment among graduates is at an all-time high, it’s fair to say optimism runs thin.
For those completing degrees in the arts, a notoriously difficult profession to make a living from, the pessimism could feel almost overwhelming.
So how to prepare? There is no one solution that will grant an individual a healthy pay cheque upon graduation, but there may be steps that can increase your odds. Sol Pawlyn is a final-year student at the Glasgow School of Art and the cofounder of ‘Glue Gun’, a successful exhibition that took place in the city.
He and Emilia Evans Munton launched the project during their first year of study. Glue Gun acted as a collaborative art exhibition aiming to showcase and work with the community of artists surrounding them.
Pawlyn and Munton made the decision to work on the exhibition after feeling as though their institution lacked in providing them with the more long-term skills required for a career in the arts.
“Your institution is not going to make you make it. It might push you further as an artist, but it’s definitely not going to make you.”
“You can’t really wait for things to happen to you. You kind of actually have to just take a bit of initiative.”
Talking about the course and how he felt it prepared him Pawlyn said:
“At the start of our course, they’d bring in guest speakers, and to be honest, it was pretty bleak. We had this one artist come and do a talk who had just won a pretty big award, and he basically told us how he was still on benefits.”
To young artists starting their journey in the field, putting on an exhibition may sound like an impossible task. One where there is no obvious place to start. Pawlyn talked through the initial steps of the project:
“There’s this prestigious space in Glasgow called the Glue Factory.”
“We basically got about 40 artists from our university to all chip in £25, and that was enough to book out the space for a couple of nights.”
“We all got something out of the project, and it created a community. Which is what artists really need. Community”
“I will say it’s a fucking lot of work. It took several months to prepare before opening night.”
The exhibition ran over a number of days and was deemed a success. So much so that a second took place in the summer of 2024.
Ultimately, the transition from student to working artist is rarely straightforward. This is one example of boosting skills outside of the hours spent in university buildings, but there are plenty of ways to build one’s portfolio.
For those unsure where to begin, starting small can be just as valuable. Shadowing professionals, taking on corporate freelance work, or selling personal projects online are all ways to develop skills and build a name before graduation.
