The Visual
Arts
Nursery – Grade 8
Art is a way of making and
communicating meaning through imagery. It is a unique symbolic domain and is a
discipline with its own particular demands and core of learning. Art is a
natural and enjoyable way of extending and enriching the child’s experience of
the world.
Visual arts activities enable
the child to make connections between the imaginative life and the world and to
organize and express ideas, feelings, and experiences in visual, tangible
forms. In drawing, painting, constructing and inventing, the child assimilates
and responds to experience and tries to make sense of it.
Visual arts education provides
for creative and aesthetic experiences through exploring, investigating,
experimenting, inventing, designing and making in a range of media. It promotes
observation and ways of seeing; it helps the child to acquire sensitivity to
the visual, spatial and tactile world and to aesthetic experience. Visual arts
education channels the child’s natural curiosity for educational ends: the
development of perceptual awareness helps the child to enjoy and interpret the
visual environment and art works and can facilitate learning in all areas of
the curriculum. Creative achievements in art contribute to a sense of personal
identity and self-esteem and help to create cultural awareness and empathy.
The visual arts curriculum
The curriculum is designed so
the child can explore, respond to, and interpret the world visually by drawing,
print, paint and color, clay, construction.
Drawing is an instinctive way for the child to communicate understanding,
feelings and her imaginative life. The developing child quite naturally invents
symbols to represent the human figure, animals, and a variety of observed
objects. Later, the need to progress beyond repeated symbols and to express a
growing sense of individuality becomes apparent. Developing the ability to look
with curiosity and concentration at qualities of line, rhythm, texture, color
and tone in the child’s surroundings and in the work of artists is essential to
developing drawing potential and enjoyment. Drawing has particular importance
in the curriculum.
Paint is an ideal medium for developing the child’s sensitivity to
color, because it is fluid and its effects are immediate. It is important to
explore the expressive and descriptive effects of a variety of color media and
to encourage adventurous use. Color awareness promotes sensitivity to and
enjoyment of color in the child’s surroundings and is further enhanced when the
child has opportunities to look at the work of artists.
Printmaking extends the child’s range of expression. Printmaking
activities provide additional opportunities for developing awareness of the
interrelationships between shapes and colors and the impact they can have, and
for experimenting with pattern. They also draw attention to the use of print in
everyday objects and help to expand understanding of the image-making processes
in evidence in the child’s surroundings.
Clay is a versatile medium for free imaginative expression.
Children begin to understand its inherent possibilities for three-dimensional
expression as they model with it and change it. The plastic, malleable nature
of clay makes it an ideal medium for learning about form.
Construction activities with a variety of three-dimensional materials can
help the child to become more spatially aware, can encourage inventiveness, and
can help to promote sensitivity to structure in the immediate and wider
environments.
The visual elements
The visual arts activities for
the different media help to develop sensitivity to qualities of line, shape,
form, color and tone, texture, pattern and rhythm, and spatial organization,
and enable the child to use them purposefully. These qualities are both the
elements of the visual world and the language of artistic communication.
Integrated learning is an
important aspect of primary education. The visual arts activities
incorporate a number of media, and many are cross-curricular; they provide a
variety of contexts for developing concepts and skills and are added
opportunities for creativity and inventiveness.
Language and visual arts
education
In visual arts education,
language is vitally important in stimulating ideas and recalling experiences so
that they are vividly present as the child tries to express them visually.
Being able to talk about art is also an essential part of the child’s
development in art.
Assessment
Assessment is related to:
- The child’s ability to
make art
- The child’s ability to
look with understanding at and respond to art works
- The quality of the child’s
engagement with art
- Disposition towards art
activities - the child’s ability to take a positive approach to and become
personally involved in the creative process, and take risks in making and
responding to art works so that her work is always personal and inventive.
The
visual arts curriculum enables the child to:
- Look at, enjoy and make a
personal response to a range of familiar and unfamiliar objects and images
in the environment, focusing on their visual attributes
- Explore and begin to
develop sensitivity to qualities of line, shape, color and tone, texture,
pattern and rhythm, spatial organization and the three-dimensional quality
of form
- Express ideas, feelings
and experiences in visual form and with imagination, enjoyment and a sense
of fulfillment
- Experiment in spontaneous,
imaginative and increasingly structured ways with a range of art
materials, including pencils, paints, crayons, chalks, markers, inks,
clay, and construction materials
- Explore the expressive and
design possibilities of the materials within a range of two and
three-dimensional media, including drawing, paint and color, print, clay,
construction
- Apply skills and
techniques, demonstrating increasing sensitivity to the visual elements in
her art work
- Look with curiosity and
openness at the work of a wide range of artists and craftspeople
- Explore atmosphere,
content and impact in the work of artists, especially when they relate to
her own work
- Identify a variety of
visual arts media and describe some of the creative processes involved
- Develop an ability to
identify and discuss what she considers the most important design elements
of individual pieces, especially when they relate to work in hand
- Discuss the preferred
design elements in her work and in the work of classmates
- Begin to appreciate the
context in which great art and artifacts are created and the culture from
which they grow
- Respond to visual arts
experiences in a variety of imaginative ways
- Use appropriate language
in responding to visual arts experiences
