Arts Subjects: Eligibility Criteria, Top Exams and Job Opportunities

The Arts course is a vibrant world containing a wide range of subjects, from the visual arts like painting and sculpture to the performing arts like music and drama. It also includes humanities, literature, and languages, offering a deep dive into human culture, history, and social issues. This Shiksha article will provide candidates with a more in-depth understanding of Arts subjects, their career prospects, and much more.

Studying the Arts helps candidates develop a fine understanding of language, history, world affairs, and historical possibilities. This diverse knowledge base provides arts students with critical thinking, better communication skills, and analytical skills. The Arts stream itself can be largely classified into different areas. 

The Arts stream is a popular choice for many art enthusiasts after completing their class 12. Arts is a broad area containing various types of subjects that explore creativity, human expression, and cultural understanding. The study of the Arts helps students gain some of the important skills like creativity, analytical abilities, critical thinking, and communication. It delves into different aspects of human experience, including language, social issues, history, and global issues. The Arts stream itself can be categorised into several different departments, such as visual arts, humanities, literary arts, and performing arts. To learn more about the different art categories, candidates must be aware of the art subjects, their importance, and the exciting career opportunities they can lead to. 

• Fine Arts: Fine Arts is a form of art related to its aesthetic value and beauty. It is the study of drawing, sculpture, painting, literature, pottery, printmaking, ceramics, and murals. 
• Visual Arts: Visual Arts is related to creative art forms whose products can be seen by sight. The art forms include filmmaking, painting, and sculpture.
• Performing Arts: Performing Arts is a form of art related to creative art activity which involves artists' physical abilities, such as body, face and presence to perform in front of an audience. Different forms of performing arts include music, drama, singing, dance, and stand-up comedy.

Also Read: Career after Creative Arts

Arts: Highlights

Aspirants willing to pursue Arts subjects need to go through the table below to learn about the Arts course in detail. Candidates can check out some of the important points related to Arts courses like course level, course duration, entrance exams, average salaries, course fees, top recruiters and top job profiles listed below in the table:  

Also Read: Career in Commercial Arts

Arts Courses: Required Eligibility Criteria

Candidates willing to pursue an Arts course need to know about the specific eligibility criteria for the Arts subject. Before applying for the Arts subject, candidates must thoroughly check the required eligibility criteria to take admission in a university or college.

UG courses: Candidates must have passed class 12th in any stream, like Science/Commerce/Humanities, from a recognised board with a minimum of 50% marks.

There are age limits as well in some colleges and institutes.

PG Courses: Candidates should have a graduation degree from a recognised college/university with a minimum of 50 per cent marks.

Arts Subjects

There are various degree courses available in Arts subjects. Candidates can check the table below to learn about some of the popular Arts subjects here.

Additional Art Subjects

Apart from the above-mentioned subjects, there are a few optional Art subjects as well that are offered at colleges and institutes, including Foreign Languages like French, Japanese, German, etc., Creative Writing, Carnatic Music, Folk Music, Western Music, Dance, etc. There are various optional subjects under the Art streams. Some of them are listed below:

Popular Entrance Exams for Admission to Arts Courses

In order to get admission in Arts subject graduation courses, candidates must have passed class 12th with a minimum passing mark. Meanwhile, some universities and colleges also have their specific entrance exams. Some of the exams are listed below

Career Opportunities in Arts Stream

The Arts Stream includes a wide range of subjects and has multiple career options as well. Arts students can opt job according to their interests and skills. Given below are some of the popular streams in which candidate can make their career.

• Teaching

• Law

• Media and Journalism

• Management

• Journalism

• Tourism

• IAS/IPS

• Hotel Management

Choosing Arts as a stream helps art students to get exposure to a world of creative, intellectual, and meaningful career opportunities. Whether a person is drawn to literature, history, psychology, political science, or fine arts, every subject has its own unique set of skills they can learn from and get opportunities to pursue a career in their preferred field. Students must qualify for the eligibility criteria, which are usually passing classes 10 and 12. Art students can pursue top entrance exams like CUET, DUET, and TISS-NET to get admission in renowned fine arts universities.

Read More:

• All about Bachelor of Arts, Subjects and Specialisations
• BFA Courses Fee Structure 2025
•  Fine Arts Course After Class 10th