>>Perhaps they meant Culinary Arts? Otherwise this story makes no sense.<<
No, they mean acting, music, drawing, etc.
90% of those folks spend their lives waiting tables.
If you are good at what you do, you become a creative or art director. I was a photographer and illustrator, good, but not willing to work for minimum wage or play political games with my work, so I became a machinist to pay the bills. So I’m in that 10%. Maxfield Parrish knew his way around machines too, so I still have hope, lol.