Did you know....?

“A study by Bankrate found that among U.S. college graduates, those who major in “miscellaneous fine arts” have an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, the absolute highest of all 162 majors ranked.”

— Freeman, Nate, “Fine art majors are less employable than high school dropouts, a new study says," Artsy, Sept 11, 2018

“The underlying reality is that, for artists and workers in the art industry at large, health is a huge, unresolved labor issue. In New York alone, many galleries do not offer health insurance to their employees. … What surprises me is how little we talk about this openly.”

— Vierkant, Artie, “The Art World’s Health Care Crisis," ARTnews, Sept 6, 2018

“In the US, physicians die by suicide at twice the rate of the general population. More than half of American doctors say they are physically or emotionally exhausted, and find their work less meaningful than they used to. In turnover and personnel replacement costs alone, a recent study found, burnout costs the US medical system $4.6 billion per year.”

— Purtill, Corinne, “A simple strategy helps doctors fight burnout. Could it work for the rest of us?,” Yahoo Finance, June 5, 201

YET....

“Artists are believed to see matters differently than others. Using their unique perspectives and emotions, they create beautiful artwork. Empaths make great artists, because they have minds bursting with passion and conflict, which act as inspiration for pieces of art.”

— Caramela, Sammi, “11 Best Careers for Empaths," Business News Daily, Aug 16, 2018

“Music has the same effect on the brain as the smell of lavender and chamomile, which produce “feel-good” chemicals like dopamine.”

— E. Payne II,Reginal, O'Donnell, Jayne and Doty, Marquart, “Whether it's art and music therapy or art and music as therapy, it calms traumatized teens,” USA Today, March 22, 2018

“[T]he role of the visual arts (drawing) in helping to shape physicians’ thinking and creativity, in addition to its therapeutic effects for burnout has been previously described by physician pioneers...”

— Glatter, Robert, MD, “Can Art Heal Our Healers?," Forbes, March 17, 2019

“A new study … suggests that training students to tolerate uncertainty could be done within the walls of a museum instead of a medical setting.”

— Gowda, Deepthiman, MD, MPH, MS, “Teaching Medical Students the Art of Uncertainty,” Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Feb 25, 2019

“Participation in the arts leads to better physical and mental health, fewer doctor visits, less medication usage and less social isolation.”

— Hazelton, Lynette,“Report: Arts organizations can be essential part of the solutions to problems of aging,” Generocity, June 20, 2019