For some who major in the entertainment industry it can be hard to find a good start. Whether you are an art major, a theater major, a music major, multimedia/film major, your opportunities may seem slim and limited. Especially in a small town like Statesboro.

The world is already filled with people who believe they have what it takes to be the next big thing. Which means employers are hoping to find someone that can stand out against the crowd. What you need is a good portfolio and a resume.

So while it may be important to get your degree, the importance of experience and something to show the world becomes that much more important for you and your career. A task like that can be really difficult for some on their own.

But while you might think in a small town like this, there aren’t that many options, this article is here to inform you that there may be more than you first thought.

This town is littered with tools and institutions that, if utilized correctly, can be of great assistance in standing out. Whether this is your first year or senior year, maybe this article can help you find avenues you never knew about or thought of using before.

The Averitt Center for the Arts

The Averitt Center is one of the biggest tools available to your arsenal if you’re into dance, art, screenwriting, acting or even teaching. The opportunities available at the Averitt Center are really diverse.

“Our mission is to bring arts to our community,” said Rachel Elkins, ticket manager for the Averitt Center Theatre. “You may not feel like you are a part of this community, but we really encourage you to give us a chance to show you that there is a greater community in Statesboro”.

The amount of options and opportunities here for people of the arts, acting, music or dancing worlds are abundantly apparent.

If you’re willing to put in the extra work to hone your skills, you can also take classes here, pertaining to both visual and performing arts. They have dancing classes, music classes, art and acting classes as well.

However, for the purposes of part one of this article, the major focus will be on the visual arts side for art majors. But this place will definitely be revisited in the future.

It should be noted though, that regardless of what your major is, you can even set up your own classes here at the center and get paid for them by the people who attend. In fact, any money you make off that class mostly goes to you.

It’s something you can put on your resume that would look pretty decent to the right employer. Whatever you need, the Averitt Center will try to have you covered.

The Averitt Center for Fine Arts allows you to take classes, learn different art techniques and develop artworks for your portfolio.

For art major students who aren’t in their last years of Georgia Southern, it should be noted the Averitt Center for Fine Art also provides scholarship opportunities. However, these scholarships are based on donations, so they may or may not be available at any given time.

The assignments given to attendees of the institution can be designed strictly around what would look good in your art portfolio. However, attendees also must first train to get the basics down before working on portfolio-specific work.

The Averitt Center of Fine Arts offers actual classes to attend, an eight week curriculum in fact. Open studio is also an option here if you do want to work on projects by yourself, as long as you’ve signed up for a class.

While this seems like a more demanding extra-curricular activity, this could prove invaluable to helping hone your artistic skills for all you art majors out there.

“A lot of people that come here regularly are hobbyist,” said Kim Riner, head of the Art Studio. “But several sell their wares, once they get to a certain level, they’ll sell at the farmers market. We have two sales every end of every semester that some Georgia Southern students participate in as well.”

As an added bonus, since you’re not obligated to take these classes, there’s a game of strategy here. You can use classes like these to incorporate into your school schedule at your leisure.

Let’s say for instance you need a semester to just focus on your core classes and get those out the way. At the same time, you don’t want your artistic skills to get rusty, or you simply just want more excuses to add things to your portfolio and resume that look good and professional, so you can take art classes here to keep up.

So if the additional workload of taking these external classes becomes too much, you can drop them rather than risking dropping your GPA. You just can’t miss giving this place a try.

Southern Pottery & Art Studio

The pottery center is the perfect place for art majors to cultivate their art making skills. The center focuses on aiding students with canvases, woodcrafts, clay handbuilding and more. There are also classes designed to help teach you more about the processes.

Best part is, you don’t even have to make an appointment to attend this place. Currently, the establishment is open to the idea of internships for students of Georgia Southern.

The internships are voluntary, but the work could be invaluable to the resume of an art major. While it is volunteer oriented, the shop does compensate for items needed for tasks that they provide.

You will be asked to audition for the roles potentially provided for your internship. However, this is only to make sure you meet a certain standard that proves you are qualified for the position at hand.

You can also host events here for those interested in doing club or group activities. To make the deal even sweeter for a Georgia Southern student, any activity that requires monetary use, you get a 10% discount off the price.

Luckily, there are places like the Pottery Center that offer a safe haven for students to feel like they can take things easy if they want to.

“We will treat you as if you are home.” said Joe Carter, head of the Pottery Center. “Any kind of art helps, as far as for therapeutic standpoint, you know for anxiety or anything like that so it is very helpful, especially when you are far away from home.”

Selling Options

There are multiple institutions in Statesboro that will give you a chance to put your art where the money is. You can sell your wares at the Farmers Market, which is held every Thursday from 3-5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

For just $15 you can set up your own stand and sell your own artwork. One person interviewed at the festival reported that she made over $4,000 from selling her art alone.

You can even volunteer at the local comic shop, Galactic Comics, and do art commissions for them to help promote your own artwork. The Farmers Market allows you to sell your wares as well by renting a space in the area. There are a lot of opportunities for you out there, all you have to do is reach out.

That’s all the time that can be spared for this week. In the next installment, part two will feature more opportunities for majors who specialize in more performing arts. Arts such as dancing, fashion, musical performance and more to be precise.

It’s never too early to get started on your future, and it’s never too late to invest in it either.