Beyond Business: Guest Speakers in the Arts and Humanities

When guest speakers are mentioned, many people picture executives in suits or tech leaders with slides. But classrooms in the arts and humanities have been enriched by guest speakers for years. These talks give students a window into the practical realities of creative and scholarly work—how to sustain a career, navigate cultural spaces, and carry ideas from theory into practice.

Beyond Business: Guest Speakers in the Arts and Humanities

At CU Denver’s College of Arts & Media, for example, professional illustrators and designers have spoken with students about creative process, professionalism, and the realities of building a sustainable career in visual arts. These sessions reveal what it takes to balance passion with deadlines, client expectations, and the challenges of remote work—lessons that rarely appear in course material.

Other universities have built traditions around this. Elon University’s Art History Speaker Series regularly invites scholars and early-career researchers to expose students to professional pathways in research, curation, and cultural preservation. Similarly, the University at Buffalo’s Visiting Artist Speaker Series combines lectures with critiques, giving students exposure to how their work is evaluated in professional circles.

At a larger scale, the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series at the University of Michigan features emerging and established artists across disciplines—from sculpture to photography to installation. These conversations focus on the business of art: galleries, residencies, and the logistics of sustaining a long-term career.

For students in these fields, guest speakers provide something essential: a real-world perspective on how creativity moves from studio to society. They show that careers in the arts and humanities involve networks, negotiations, and cultural contexts as much as they do talent and ideas.

At SpeakerPost, we know that guest speaking isn’t just about preparing students for corporate careers. It’s also about helping students in every discipline see how their work connects to the world beyond campus. Guest speakers in the arts and humanities highlight that education is not only about employability—it’s about understanding how creativity, culture, and scholarship shape our communities.