K-12 Program Overview

  • The Big Ideas in our K-12 Visual Arts Curriculum focus on transferable skills and transcendent ideas through the study, interpretation, and production of art that can both reflect and shape people and cultures. 

    Throughout Time and Across Cultures . . . 

    • Artists have sampled from other artists, past or present, for their own inspiration.
    • Artists have worked collaboratively to create, construct, and redefine the limits of art.
    • Artists have used the grid to reconstruct, resize and redesign artwork.
    • Miniature-sized artworks have made art more accessible to one another through means of sharing and trading.  Similar to a portfolio, the multitude of artworks brought together emanate the notions of community as well as individual creativity.
    • Public artworks have developed as a direct response to society.
    • Artists have had to draw from observation as their immediate reference.
    • Artists have utilized various tools to mimic that of their subject matter.
    • Relationships have been based on the proportions from one object to another.
    • The art of transformation has influenced the work of many artists as well as scientists.
    • An artist’s artwork has and will always be a representation of themselves and their interests.
    • Artists have explored the processes in which art and its reproductive studies have been altered.
    • Artists have expanded upon their own best practices through the interaction of other artists as references for collaboration and/or validation.
    • All physical and inorganic objects have been composed of both simple and complex shapes.
    • Color has shaped a framework to visually interpret, analyze & evaluate our surroundings.
    • The skills, techniques, elements, and principles of the arts can be learned, studied, refined, and practiced.
    • Artists use tools and resources as well as their own experiences and skills to create art.
    • The arts provide a medium to understand and exchange ideas.
    • People have expressed experiences and ideas through the arts throughout time and across cultures.
    • Design elements have shaped a framework to visually interpret, analyze and evaluate our surroundings. 
    • There are formal and informal processes used to assess the quality of works in the arts.
    • People use both aesthetic and critical processes to assess quality, interpret the meaning and determine value.