Career Fair Shows Off the Creative Industry

Students can have a rewarding career if they embrace their artistic skills, and Arts of the Pamlico will show them the wide variety of opportunities available when they stick with their paintbrush or theatrical talents. On October 5, Arts of the Pamlico will host an Arts and Cultural Education Career Fair at the Turnage Theatre in Washington for Beaufort County Schools students.

Music, comedy and art demonstrations will fill the Turnage Theatre as students arrive. Local performers, sculptors, film producers, writers and educators will be on hand giving students a sense of different careers they can pursue in the arts. Music instructor Stacey Russell and art instructor Tom Grubb will represent Beaufort County Community College at the fair. Pitt Community College and East Carolina University will also have representatives present.

“Art is all around us, not just tucked away in a museum. It is up on stage; it is online; it is in our headphones and our classrooms,” said Debra Torrence, executive director of Arts of the Pamlico. “We want to show students how local artists make a living through entertaining others, creating costumes and paintings, or teaching. The creative industry employs 2.5 percent of our labor force in Beaufort County. We hope that through this event, our youth see themselves in the creative industry.”

Stacey Russell said music can lead to variety of careers. “Not everyone is going to make a living playing in a symphony,” she said. “There are many other career paths open to musicians. There are composers, sound technicians and arts administrators. Beyond that, we need teachers. In order to inspire the next generation of musicians, we need instructors at all levels of education, from elementary school to the university level.”

Ashley Padgett with Beaufort County Schools coordinated middle school and high school students to attend the event. Be it video editing software, a guitar, or a camera, Torrence and Padgett hope to see students operating one of these tools throughout their lives.