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Visual Arts

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Rationale and Aims

Rationale

Visual Arts includes the fields of art, craft and design. Students create visual art works that communicate, challenge and express their own and others’ ideas. They develop perceptual and conceptual understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills through exploring and expanding their understanding of their world, and other worlds. They learn about the role of the artist, craftsperson and designer and their contribution to society, and the significance of the creative industries including the roles of critics, curators and commentators. Students learn about the relationships between the viewer and artworks and how artworks can be displayed to enhance meaning for the viewer.

Through Visual Arts, students make and respond using visual arts knowledge, understanding and skills to express meanings associated with personal views, intrinsic and extrinsic worlds. Visual Arts engages students in a journey of discovery, experimentation and problem-solving relevant to visual perception and visual language, utilising visual techniques, technologies, practices and processes. Learning in the Visual Arts leads students to become increasingly confident and proficient in achieving their personal visual aesthetic, appreciating and valuing that of others.

Visual Arts supports students to view the world through various lenses and contexts. They recognise the significance of visual arts histories, theories and practices, exploring and responding to artists, craftspeople and designers and their artworks. They apply visual arts knowledge in order to make critical judgments about their own work and that of others. Learning in the Visual Arts helps students to develop understanding of world cultures and their responsibilities as global citizens.

Aims

The Visual Arts curriculum aims to develop students’:

  • conceptual and perceptual ideas and expressions through design and inquiry processes
  • visual arts techniques, materials, processes and technologies
  • critical and creative thinking, using visual arts languages, theories and practices to apply aesthetic judgment
  • respect for and acknowledgement of the diverse roles, innovations, traditions, histories and cultures of artists, craftspeople, designers, curators, critics and commentators
  • respect for visual arts as social and cultural practices, including industry practices
  • confidence, curiosity, imagination and enjoyment and a personal aesthetic through engagement with visual arts making, viewing, discussing, analysing, interpreting and evaluating.
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