Watch now: To find out more about the Arts Foundation to Level 6, watch ‘Understanding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, The Arts Foundation to Level 6’ on the About the Arts page. To find out more about Visual Arts Levels 7–10, watch ‘Understanding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, Visual Arts Levels 7–10’ on the Resources page.

Rationale and Aims

Rationale

Visual arts contribute to the fields of art and craft. Learning in, through and about these fields, students engage critically using creative processes and artistic practices to communicate and make meaning.

Visual arts creative processes and practice provide insights into the impacts culture can have on ways of knowing, doing and being in Australia and the world. Investigating these impacts is integral to fostering students’ abilities to discern and understand the unique ways visual arts practice and creative processes can be both related and distinct to learning about culture.

Visual arts are central to the diverse and continuing cultural practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Through visual arts, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists articulate and express connection to and responsibility for Country and Place.

Learning about visual techniques, technologies, skills and media of local and global artists and craftspeople supports students to develop their own artworks with integrity and understanding of distinctions between art and culture. Students explore different perspectives to develop and expand perceptual, conceptual and cultural understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills. From this, students develop confident and proficient practices to achieve a personally responsive and distinctive visual aesthetic.

Students understand how creative industries contribute to personal, cultural, community and economic wellbeing. In Visual Arts, students learn to recognise and cultivate unique literacies, practices and creative processes to grapple with ideas, intricacies and dilemmas. The interrelationship between making and responding invites students to investigate, contextualise and make meaningful connections between personal and global perspectives as they apply Visual Arts knowledge, frameworks and practical skills.

Investigating artworks and practices prepares students to respectfully recognise, articulate and acknowledge artistic and cultural influences. In exploring how, why, where and for whom artists and craftspeople produce artworks, students recognise and appreciate the tensions, complexities and significance of visual arts histories, theories and practices.

Aims

The Visual Arts curriculum aims to develop students’:

• conceptual and perceptual ideas and representations through inquiry processes
• knowledge and skills in using visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials
• critical and creative thinking skills through engagement with and development of visual arts practice and creative processes
• respect for and acknowledgement of the diverse roles, innovations, traditions, histories and cultures of artists and craftspeople; visual arts as social and cultural practices; and industry as artists and viewers or audiences
• confidence, curiosity, imagination and enjoyment
• personal expression through engagement with visual arts practices and ways of expressing, representing and communicating.