What it is and how it helps students
A comprehensive, multifaceted visual arts program—sometimes referred to as discipline-based art education—integrates ideas, skills and knowledge from four art disciplines: art history, art criticism, aesthetics and art production. There is a growing awareness throughout the country of the need for this type of in-depth art education. Already, 39 states have adopted frameworks that reflect this approach. In addition, some states include art education in mandated high school graduation requirements; others make it a college entry requirement. The lasting dividends of a comprehensive visual arts education program include numerous skills needed in life. Among these are helping students:
- Learn to solve problems and make decisions
- Build self-esteem and self-discipline
- Develop informed perception (learn how to look at and interpret visual)
- Build skills in cooperation and group problem-solving
- Develop the ability to imagine what might be
- Learn to weigh meanings and evaluate what they see
- Appreciate, understand and be aware of different cultures and cultural values
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The basics of the curriculum
The need for educated perception—knowing how to interpret what is being conveyed through images—is gaining additional importance as our world becomes increasingly visually oriented. And today's students—who have grown up in a world of fast-paced images on television and in videos—often think in terms of images and respond best to instruction that has strong visual components. The following are among the basics of putting in place a comprehensive visual arts curriculum:
- Based on a written, sequenced curriculum
- Taught at all levels of the K-12 curriculum
- Taught to all children, not just those who are talented or who express interest
- Provide encounters with authentic works of art through museum visits, artists-in-schools
- Programs and other multicultural and community resources
- Sequenced in such a way that the content builds on earlier learning
- Go beyond holiday arts and crafts, drawing its content from the four art disciplines (art history, art criticism, aesthetics and production of art)
- Be assessable. Both teachers and students should be held accountable for what is learned in art classes.
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