by Saoirse Anton

The Leaving Cert results are in, the celebrations are recovered from, and now students across the country await the CAO offers next week. This year has seen a rise in applications for arts and humanities courses, with an increase of around 10 percent in applications across the field. This comeback, after a drop in applications for such courses following the 2008 recession, is heartening.

In recent years many governments and educational boards in different countries have made arts and humanities degrees inaccessible or unappealing through funding cuts, fee increases, or the removal of courses altogether. Two years ago, in an effort to produce more “job ready graduates,” the Australian government announced reductions in fees for many business and STEM courses, while fees for many arts courses near doubled. Over recent years in the UK, funding for arts and humanities courses has been cut significantly, and several universities have axed arts courses that were deemed as ‘low quality’ by the Office for Students, a definition which is based on the percentage of students that graduate into professional roles or further study from their first undergraduate degree. For arts courses, post-graduate paths can look very different, and do not necessarily conform to the more direct pathways carved by STEM and other courses. An English Literature student may go on to be a writer, a critic, a journalist, a marketing executive, a communications consultant, a teacher, a technical writer... any number of career paths that benefit from strong language, creative thinking and communication skills. Though they don’t always fit the standard metrics for success and value, arts and humanities courses are ever more valuable in the current climate. In a world where we need creative solutions for increasingly difficult issues, creative thinkers are worth their weight in gold.

But beyond the value of transferrable skills, the arts and humanities are vital fields of study in their own right. Without writers, performers, producers, musicians, artists of all sorts, would any of us have made it through lockdowns with our sanity intact? Yes, it’s easy to argue that an arts degree could lead to a steady marketing career, but it can just importantly lead to a volatile, interesting and enriching career as a performing artist or poet. It can produce the next Bridgerton, and the next wacky Edinburgh Festival Fringe production that leaves you wondering what on earth you just experienced.

In recent months I have been learning lots of new things – I’ve given juggling a shot, hula-hooping, roller-skating, aerial dance, Duolingo has kicked back into action and I have been working my way through a book of poems to learn by heart. It has been a joyful few months. Regardless of what it leads to, learning is an incredible gift. Whether you are learning about the Irish language through the baking of bread and churning of butter in a show like Arán agus Im, participating in a free workshop on Culture Night, or just falling down a little rabbit hole of curiosity after reading about something in the paper, there is so much to be gained from learning something new.

As Kurt Vonnegut said, the arts are not just a way to make a living, “they are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

So my call this month to all of you, is to pursue something you love. If you are a sixth-year student facing CAO decisions in the coming months, choose a course that you are interested in and will enjoy delving into, and if you have the space to, don’t fret too much about what is the ‘sensible’ choice. If you, like me, are well beyond the stage of choosing college courses, check out workshops and classes near you. Perhaps you always fancied making a costume, you would love to learn to unicycle, have dreamt of mastering blues guitar or, as in my case, you are determined to learn to do a handstand and roller skate backwards (not at the same time!) before the year is out. 

Whatever it is that lights a fire in your imagination, kindle it.