I don't think that you need a degree to have a career in the arts. I feel as though experience is much more important.
From researching and interviewing about whether an arts degree is needed to have a career in the arts I have found that you don't always need to have a degree to have a successful arts based career.
The feedback that I have got from the people that I asked personally shows that they feel as though a degree isn't needed to have a successful job in the arts as they have worked their way through their art based lives without the foundation of a degree.
However, from interviewing Jane (dance teacher), I believe that if she were to of done a degree it may have allowed her to be more creative and not so linear.
A lot of people have said online that they want to have a degree in the arts to widen their art skills, yet when they finish their degree they don't go into work in the arts, this is possibly because they just wanted to do the degree simply because they love art.
When some of the people had finished their degree they felt as though other 'arty' people who perhaps hadn't done a degree, were further ahead of them and had much more experience.
When I have looked online and on advertising posters for cast calls, recruitment for jobs within the theatre and also entertainment roles on cruise ships it has often said that previous experience is needed. But what counts as experience? What level do they require? Is a degree counted as experience? Does previous acting in local and small theatre companies' count as experience? It can all be a bit confusing. Some places even require a certain height which in some cases comes across as more important than the persons acting skills.
I feel as though you either have an arty personality or you don't – art isn't necessarily something that you can learn from a text book like maths or science - even if it takes years!
Even after all of this research my opinion hasn't really changed. I still feel as though experience is much more important and can allow you to do most of the jobs that the degrees can.
I definitely feel experience is more valuable than getting a degree, but it seems like you always have to prove yourself to other people when you say you don't have a degree...