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Aesthetic Valuing
Aesthetic valuing in the visual arts involves analysis of and informed critical
response to the intent, purpose, and technical proficiency of works of art. To-
gether with others students learn to make sound critical judgments about the
quality and success of works of art by relying on their own experiences in and
perceptions about the visual arts. Expressing their responses in oral, written,
and electronic forms, they also discuss such aesthetic questions as, What is art
for? or What makes an object a work of art? Analyzing and responding to their
own artwork and that of others help students understand the feelings and ideas
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expressed in two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of art created by
artists of many cultures, places, and times.
Connections, Relationships, Applications
By connecting, applying, and observing the relationships of the visual arts
to the other arts disciplines, to their own world, and, gradually, to the world at
large, students understand that the visual arts do not exist in isolation. Through
visual arts instruction students learn to discover, appreciate, and value the con-
tributions of the visual arts to culture, society, and the economy, particularly in
California. They recognize that visual and graphic images and imagery support
most global communication. They also begin to realize that, whether in fine art
paintings or Internet animations, billboards or children’s book illustrations, car
design or kinetic sculpture, logos or iconography, cinemagraphic epics or video
installations, visual art is connected to their everyday lives. Recognizing that
everyone from birth is influenced by visual communication, the teacher of the
standards-based visual arts can empower students to become media literate,
analytical, and critical.
Today, the visual arts are providing new career opportunities for students.
They are learning new ways of seeing the world and making art and recognizing
that new media are changing and expanding the role of the artist in ways no
one could have imagined a decade ago. What students learn in the visual arts
now helps them in numerous careers in and related to the expanded visual arts.
(See Appendix C, “Careers in the Visual and Performing Arts.”)
When students improve their visual and media literacy, they may also im-
prove their ability to obtain, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information
in a variety of media, a form of literacy crossing all curricular boundaries and
applying to all aspects of life. Students can probe beyond the obvious, identify
the psychological content found in symbols and icons, and, through the
Internet, learn about the changing roles of the twenty-first century artist. Using
a variety of new media and electronic technology, students can prepare portfo-
lios of original works of art for evaluations, exhibitions, applications for college
entrance and jobs, and personal collections. By being visually and media liter-
ate, students have the tools needed to make sense of the profusion of images
constantly bombarding them.
Chapter 4
Guidance
for Visual and
Performing Arts
Programs
Visual Arts
