Visual Art Benchmarks

 

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“When asked, “Why paint a flower so big?,”

Georgia O’Keeffe explained,

“So that people will be surprised into taking the time to look.”

 

—from Hands and Minds: the Art and Writing of Young People in 20th Century America

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Visual arts education inspires students to perceive and shape the visual, spatial, and aesthetic characteristics of the world around them. Using a variety of ways to explore, learn, and communicate, students develop their capacity for imaginative and reflective thinking. The field includes the traditional “fine arts” of drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture; the design fields including industrial, ceramic, textile, furniture, and graphic design; and architecture, landscape design and urban, regional, and rural planning. Visual arts is a continuously evolving field that also explores technologies such as film, holography, video, and other electronic forms of image-making.

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The PreK–12 Learning Standards for the Visual Arts

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1. Methods, Materials, and Techniques. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the methods,
   materials, and techniques unique to the visual arts.

2. Elements and Principles of Design. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the elements and principles of design.

3. Observation, Abstraction, Invention, and Expression. Students will demonstrate their powers of observation, abstraction, invention, and expression in a variety of media, materials, and techniques.

4. Drafting, Revising, and Exhibiting. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the processes of creating and exhibiting their own artwork: drafts, critique, self-assessment, refinement, and exhibit preparation.

5. Critical Response. Students will describe and analyze their own work and the work of others using appropriate visual arts vocabulary. When appropriate, students will connect their analysis to interpretation and evaluation.

6. Purposes of the Arts. Students will describe the purposes for which works of dance, music, theatre,
   visual arts, and architecture were and are created, and, when appropriate, interpret their meanings.

7. Roles of Artists in Communities. Students will describe the roles of artists, patrons, cultural organizations, and arts institutions in societies of the past and present.

8. Concepts of Style, Stylistic Influence, and Stylistic Change. Students will demonstrate their understanding of styles, stylistic influence, and stylistic change by identifying when and where art works were created, and by analyzing characteristic features of art works from various historical periods, cultures, and genres.

9. Inventions, Technologies and the Arts. Students will describe and analyze how performing and visual artists use and have used materials, inventions, and technologies in their work.

10. Interdisciplinary Connections. Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering.

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Elementary Benchmarks

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Pre-First

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology Create 2D and 3D works

• Explore elements of art; color, space, shape texture, and lines

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts

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1st Grade

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology

• Create 2D and 3D works

• Explore elements of art; color mixing (primary and secondary), space (overlapping), shape (organic and geometric), texture (patterns), and lines (different types of lines)

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts

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2nd Grade

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology

• Create 2D and 3D works

• Explore the elements of art including; color (warm and cool), space (foreground, middle ground, back ground), shape and symmetry, explore contour line, texture (real and implied)

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts

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3rd Grade

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology

• Create 2D and 3D works

• Explore elements of art; color (analogous), form (3D forms), and space (Linear perspective), symmetry (radial)

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts 

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4th Grade

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology to create 2D and 3D works

• Explore elements and principals of design. Color (Complementary), Line (Expressive), Shape (Expressive), Space(positive/negative).

• Learn the art of critique by contrast and comparison.

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts.

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5th Grade

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• Explore a variety of traditional media and tools as well as technology to create 2D and 3D works

• Apply knowledge of the principals and elements of design. Color(tints and shades), value (highlight and shadow), Perspective (atmospheric perspective).

• Learn the art of critique by contrast and comparison.

• Integrate classroom curriculum into the visual arts.