Navigating a Career in the Arts, Culture & Media: Fall 2024 Event Summary

As part of our ongoing initiative in partnership with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable to help create innovative work-integrated learning opportunities in the arts, Work in Culture recently teamed up with the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) to host an insightful industry event designed to introduce undergraduate students to the range of career pathways and workplaces that exist in the arts, culture, and media.

Held on October 22, 2024 at the UTSC campus, this event was the third such industry gathering that Work in Culture has hosted as part of this initiative, and by far the largest.

Over 350 first-year students in UTSC’s Arts Management program took part, meeting directly with arts professionals from across the sector in a series of rotating group discussions where they could learn and talk candidly about the challenges and opportunities of working in the arts.

Work-integrated learning, or WIL, opportunities like these help to bridge the classroom and the workplace by giving students the chance to apply their learning and develop their career skills in an accessible and low-risk environment.

The journey from school to work is different for every student. Many face barriers along the way that can end up limiting learning outcomes and career pathways.

WIL helps to level the playing field, while also connecting students with employers looking to address skills, talent, and innovation gaps.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know young people looking to get into the sector,” said arts professional Rebecca Harrison, Executive Director of Unity Charity, who participated as a speaker at the event. “I appreciated the opportunity to mentor, network, teach, and offer encouragement.”

Fellow participant Dorian Cox, Director of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, agreed: “As someone who entered the arts management field with no practical training, I wish I had the opportunity when I was younger to participate in an event like [this]. It is critical for the next general of arts workers to see the variety of pathways available to them, which this event helped to illuminate.”

WIL can take many forms, from structured work placements as part of a diploma or degree program, to more flexible co-curricular experiences and new models like micro placements, virtual projects, and competitions.

Innovative WIL experiences like these provide students with more opportunities to improve their learning and develop their skills, and respond to the needs of employers by providing access to new talent, new ideas, and the opportunity to grow and diversify their workforce.

There are many benefits of WIL for employers:

  • Offering WIL placements on a regular basis creates a pool of skilled talent that can be drawn from to fill entry-level positions.
  • WIL students accelerate innovation by offering new ideas and creative approaches to existing problems.
  • Students can help enhance productivity by providing valuable work during a WIL placement.
  • WIL opportunities attract diverse post-secondary students and can help build awareness of the diversity of skills and career paths available to your organization.

Visit Business + Higher Education Roundtable’s WIL Hub for more ways to explore, invest in, and create quality WIL opportunities.

Participating arts industry professionals gather for a group photo at the end of the "Navigating a Career in the Arts, Culture & Media" event. Photo credit: UTSC

Thank you to our roster of arts professionals for participating in this event and sharing your time, energy, and expertise with us: Dorian Cox, Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio; Diane Davy, Work in Culture; Rebecca Harrison, Unity Charity; Marla Hlady, UTSC Studio Art; Laurie Januska, Women in Film & Television – Toronto; Desirée Leverenz, UTSC Theatre and Performance; Dr. Mary Elizabeth Luka, UTSC Arts & Media Management; Carla Melo, UTSC Theatre and Performance Studies; Laura Risk, UTSC Music and Culture; Mike Rudolph, Shaftesbury; Dr. Cyrus Sundar Singh, UTSC Arts Management; Sanjeet Takhar, The Music Gallery; Claudia Sicondolfo, UTSC Arts Management; and Robin Wilcox, DesignTO. We appreciate you!

Thank you also to Dr. Caroline Klimek and Aline Zara, Salvador Alanis, Shannon Hughes, Inga Untiks, and Nina Sivananthan from UTSC for your exceptional support in the development and delivery of this event.

Student facilitators talk about their takeaways from the event at the end of the "Navigating a Career in the Arts, Culture & Media" event. Photo credit: UTSC

We’d also like to thank student facilitators Janessa Ardon, Orianna Bennett, Quinn Chamandy, RJ Diaz, Anuujin Enkhbaatar, Wyn Kon, Ziheng (Peter) Lin, Leah Manz, Christina Mendez-Nguyen, Jessica Peng, Shutian Peng, and Kiki Zhou, and event photographers Carrie Lau and Henglin Li. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Work in Culture has partnered with Business + Higher Education Roundtable to help fulfill the goal of providing WIL opportunities for all post-secondary students by offering innovative WIL experiences to undergraduate students in UTSC’s Arts Management programs this past winter, spring, and fall.

These WIL experiences were designed in close partnership with UTSC to help students navigate the range of career options and workplaces in arts and culture, and to include them in critical discussions with industry professionals around arts and culture career development.

The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization bringing together some of Canada’s largest companies and leading post-secondary institutions. Since 2015, BHER has worked to harness the strengths of Canada’s business and post-secondary education sectors to build opportunities for young Canadians, boost innovation and drive collaboration. Learn more at bher.ca.

Previously:

Work in Culture is Creating WIL Opportunities in the Arts with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable

Navigating a Career in the Arts, Culture & Media: Spring 2024 Event Highlights