Young Artists

This section looks at arts employment from the lens of young/transition age artists with disabilities.

Effective Career Development Strategies for Young Artists with Disabilities
By. Heike Boeltzig, Rooshey Hasnain, and Jennifer S. Sulewski 

This brief reports on effective strategies that 47 young artists with disabilities used to gain access to arts-related experiences in order to further their educational and career pathways. As part of the overall evaluation, we were able to identify career development strategies based on a review of finalists’ program applications. This brief is mainly targeted at visual artists, although the strategies may also apply to other groups of artists.

Analysis of Case Manager’s Support of Youth with Disabilities Transitioning from School to Work
By: Edurne Garcia-Iriarte, Fabricio Balcazar & Tina Taylor-Ritzler, 2006 

This study analyzed employment-related supports provided by case managers in a transition program for urban ethnic minority youth with disabilities. It further assessed the influence of these supports on employment outcomes. Urban ethnic minority youth with disabilities often have lives that are complicated by a host of factors related to living in poverty that influence their ability to find and maintain employment. They found that program staff provided two types of supports to address work needs and living issues of these youth: job specific, related to on-the-job tasks, and off-site work supports, related to other areas of daily living. The results showed that both job specific and off-site work supports predicted higher employment retention for youth with disabilities.

Employment Among Youth with Disabilities
By: Camille Marder, Denise Cardoso, and Mary Wagner, 2001

Although statistics are gathered regularly about the employment of American youth in the general population, comparatively little is known about the employment patterns of youth with disabilities. This chapter seeks to add to current knowledge by addressing several key questions: (1) What is the extent of employment among 13- to 17-year olds with disabilities? (2) How much of their employment is work-study, and how much is not school-related? (3) What are the characteristics of youth’s jobs? (4) How do employment experiences differ for youth with different disabilities and demographic characteristics?