Steven J. Tepper, associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy and associate professor in the department of sociology at Vanderbilt; and incoming dean (July 2014) of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University

This talk will explore findings from the National Arts Alumni Project — a survey of more than 100,000 arts school graduates in the U.S. What happens to arts school graduates? Do they get jobs working as artists? Do they use the skills they learned in school even in non-arts jobs? Do all arts graduates face the same opportunities; or are there important inequalities across race and gender? Are arts graduates happy with their lives? Do those who continue to work as artist find greater happiness and satisfaction than those who stop making art? For the first time, we have a national data set that can begin to answer these questions, providing insight on how creative careers unfold in the 21st century.

Steven J. Tepper is associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy and associate professor in the department of sociology at Vanderbilt. Prior to Vanderbilt, Tepper served as deputy director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Tepper is the incoming dean (July 2014) of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, the nation's largest, comprehensive arts school.

Tepper's research and teaching focuses on creativity in education and work; conflict over art and culture; and cultural participation. He is author of Not Here, Not Now, Not That! Protest Over Art and Culture in America (University of Chicago, 2011) and co-editor and contributing author of the book Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life (Routledge 2007). Tepper is a leading writer and speaker on U.S. cultural policy and his work has fostered national discussions around topics of cultural engagement, everyday creativity, and the transformative possibilities of a 21st century creative campus. His writings on creativity and higher education have appeared in numerous national publications including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Huffington Post and Fast Company. Tepper is also the research director of SNAAP, the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, which has surveyed more than 100,000 graduates of arts training institutions about their education and careers.

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