The arts encompass a wide range of subjects, from traditional humanities like history and philosophy to creative disciplines like fine arts, music, and theater. Whether you’re choosing a high school stream, picking a college major, or simply curious about what falls under this umbrella, the arts cover three broad categories: the humanities, the social sciences, and the visual and performing arts.
Humanities Subjects
The humanities focus on human culture, language, thought, and expression. These are the subjects most people think of first when they hear “arts.” The American Academy of Arts and Sciences groups them into several core disciplines:
- English language and literature: American, British, and world literature, plus creative writing, speech, and rhetoric.
- History: Broad study of civilizations, empires, and modern societies, including the history of science and medicine.
- Philosophy: Logic, ethics, metaphysics, and the history of philosophical thought.
- Languages and linguistics: Modern foreign languages, comparative literature, classics, and ancient languages like Latin and Greek.
- Religion: Comparative and nonsectarian study of world religions, their histories, and their cultural impact.
- Jurisprudence: The philosophy of law, covering how legal systems develop and function in society.
- Cultural, ethnic, and gender studies: Interdisciplinary programs examining race, ethnicity, gender, and identity.
Many schools also offer interdisciplinary humanities programs that combine several of these areas around a theme or time period, such as medieval studies, classical studies, or digital humanities.
Social Science Subjects
Social sciences sit at the intersection of arts and science, using systematic methods to study human behavior and societies. In most high school and undergraduate programs, they are grouped under the arts stream. The core social science subjects include:
- Economics: How societies allocate scarce resources and produce goods and services.
- Political science: Government systems, constitutions, political processes, and public policy.
- Psychology: Human behavior, mental processes, and emotional development.
- Sociology: Social structures, group interactions, culture, and institutions.
- Geography: Relationships between people, places, and environments, covering both physical and human geography.
- Anthropology: Human cultures and societies across time, from ancient civilizations to modern communities.
Other social science subjects you may encounter include criminology, international relations, urban studies, and public administration. At the high school level, economics and political science are among the most popular electives for arts stream students.
Visual and Performing Arts Subjects
These are the creative, studio-based disciplines. At the college level, fine and performing arts majors break down roughly like this, based on U.S. Census data from 2023: commercial art and graphic design (25%), fine arts such as painting and sculpture (22%), music (18%), drama and theater arts (11%), and film, video, and photographic arts (9%).
In high school, the visual and performing arts options are typically more limited but still cover a useful range. Common offerings include fine arts (drawing, painting, sculpture), music (vocal and instrumental), and sometimes media studies or fashion studies. Some schools also offer courses in digital design or photography.
At the university level, these subjects branch out considerably. You might specialize in ceramics, printmaking, animation, sound design, dance choreography, screenwriting, or documentary filmmaking, all under the arts umbrella.
Digital and Interdisciplinary Subjects
Arts programs have expanded well beyond their traditional boundaries. Digital studies is one of the fastest-growing areas, blending arts with technology. Programs in this space cover topics like game design, data visualization, social media analysis, digital journalism, and the cultural impact of the internet. At many universities, you can take courses that combine coding with storytelling, or study how virtual communities shape identity and culture.
Media studies is another interdisciplinary field that examines radio, cinema, print journalism, advertising, and digital platforms. These newer subjects appeal to students who want creative and analytical skills without limiting themselves to a single traditional discipline.
High School Arts Stream Subjects
If you’re a secondary school student choosing between streams, the arts track typically includes a mix of compulsory and elective subjects. English is almost always required. Beyond that, common choices include history, geography, political science, economics, psychology, and sociology.
Electives vary by school but can include music, fine arts, legal studies, home science, public administration, human rights and gender studies, informatics practices (a basic introduction to programming and databases), and fashion studies. The combination you choose should align with what you want to study after graduation. For example, pairing economics with political science sets you up for law or public policy, while combining psychology with sociology points toward social work, counseling, or research.
Where Arts Subjects Lead Professionally
Arts subjects open doors to a broader range of careers than many people expect. On the creative side, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $53,180 for arts and design occupations, which is above the $49,500 median for all occupations. Specific roles vary widely in pay: art directors earned a median of $111,040 in 2024, special effects artists and animators earned $99,800, fashion designers earned $80,690, and graphic designers earned $61,300.
Humanities and social science graduates work across education, journalism, marketing, law, government, nonprofit management, and corporate communications. The analytical thinking, writing, and research skills developed through arts subjects transfer well to roles that don’t have “arts” in the title. About 84,900 openings are projected each year in arts and design occupations alone through 2034, largely driven by the need to replace workers who move on.