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Visual and Performing Arts

Field of study · CIP 2020

Visual and Performing Arts is one of the fields of study in the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). It contains 68 detailed programs and, through the official CIP–SOC crosswalk, connects to 38 occupations employing about 3,063,820 workers, with a median wage of $67,620. The crosswalk shows which jobs a field of study is related to — not a guarantee of entry.

What the occupations pay

Median annual wage across the occupations this field of study leads to, from BLS OEWS (national, cross-industry, May 2024). The middle range is the 25th–75th percentile of those occupation medians — it describes the field, not any one job or graduate.

Median occupation wage $67,620
Middle range (p25–p75) $61,503 – $80,315
Occupations with wage data 32 of 38

AI exposure of this field of study

Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to today's AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks a large language model (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across the occupations this field of study leads to it is 36% — 35th percentile of all fields of study. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages 0.33 here.

Computed across the 34 of 38 occupations this field leads to that carry a published exposure score.

The most-exposed fields of study lead to knowledge, language and analytical work; the least-exposed lead to physical trades and hands-on production. Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks, not a prediction that these jobs will be automated; high exposure most often means augmentation. Bands are comparable across the cluster, education, job-zone and field-of-study tiers (same two studies, same percentile method).

Where this field of study leads

The largest occupations connected to this field by the CIP–SOC crosswalk, by employment. Wage and employment describe the occupation, not an individual.

Occupation Workers Median pay
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education 1,072,540 $64,580
Managers, All Other 630,980 $136,550
Graphic Designers 214,260 $61,300
Postsecondary Teachers, All Other 151,530 $78,490
Producers and Directors 145,270 $83,480
Web and Digital Interface Designers 111,400 $98,090
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary 97,890 $80,190
Interior Designers 69,580 $63,490
Photographers 51,230 $42,520
Art Directors 50,370 $111,040
Writers and Authors 47,800 $72,270
Actors 38,800
Musicians and Singers 38,350
Commercial and Industrial Designers 30,250 $79,450
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 29,260 $77,800
Film and Video Editors 28,860 $70,980
Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film 24,460 $68,810
Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers 23,420 $49,140
Special Effects Artists and Animators 21,280 $99,800
Fashion Designers 20,910 $80,690
Entertainers and Performers, Sports and Related Workers, All Other 15,040
Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes 14,220 $96,310
Museum Technicians and Conservators 13,070 $47,460
Sound Engineering Technicians 13,050 $66,430
Music Directors and Composers 12,330 $63,670
Curators 12,280 $61,770
Set and Exhibit Designers 10,850 $66,280
Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators 10,000 $60,560
Designers, All Other 9,680 $66,220
Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary 9,120 $101,480
Dancers 9,060
Disc Jockeys, Except Radio 8,170
Artists and Related Workers, All Other 7,370 $72,760
Archivists 7,050 $61,570
Costume Attendants 6,290 $54,810
Craft Artists 4,370 $38,480
Choreographers 3,430 $55,600
Appraisers of Personal and Business Property

Programs in this field

A sample of the detailed CIP programs within this family. The full family contains 68 programs.

  • 50.0506 Acting
  • 50.0703 Art History, Criticism and Conservation
  • 50.0701 Art/Art Studies, General
  • 50.1001 Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management, General
  • 50.1099 Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management, Other
  • 50.0302 Ballet
  • 50.0914 Brass Instruments
  • 50.0711 Ceramic Arts and Ceramics
  • 50.0602 Cinematography and Film/Video Production
  • 50.0511 Comedy Writing and Performance
  • 50.0406 Commercial Photography
  • 50.0402 Commercial and Advertising Art
  • 50.1101 Community/Environmental/Socially-Engaged Art
  • 50.0906 Conducting
  • 50.0510 Costume Design
  • 50.0201 Crafts/Craft Design, Folk Art and Artisanry
  • 50.0301 Dance, General
  • 50.0399 Dance, Other
  • 50.0401 Design and Visual Communications, General
  • 50.0102 Digital Arts
  • 50.0507 Directing and Theatrical Production
  • 50.0607 Documentary Production
  • 50.0501 Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts, General
  • 50.0599 Dramatic/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft, Other
  • 50.0705 Drawing
  • 50.0407 Fashion/Apparel Design
  • 50.0712 Fiber, Textile and Weaving Arts
  • 50.0601 Film/Cinema/Media Studies
  • 50.0699 Film/Video and Photographic Arts, Other
  • 50.0799 Fine Arts and Art Studies, Other

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Visual and Performing Arts." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/programs/visual-and-performing-arts

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Visual and Performing Arts. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/programs/visual-and-performing-arts

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-visual-and-performing-arts,
  title  = {Visual and Performing Arts},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/programs/visual-and-performing-arts}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.