Visual Arts

2 Units for each of Preliminary and HSC

Exclusions: N/A

Course description

Visual Arts involves students in artmaking, art criticism and art history. Students critically and historically investigate artworks, critics, historians and artists from Australia as well as those from other cultures, traditions and times. Students develop their own artworks, culminating in a 'body of work' in the HSC course.

What students learn

Preliminary course

The Preliminary course is broadly focused, while the HSC course provides for deeper and more complex investigations.

Preliminary course learning opportunities focus on:

• the nature of practice in artmaking, art criticism and art history through different investigations

• the role and function of artists, artworks, the world and audiences in the artworld

• the different ways the visual arts may be interpreted and how students might develop their own informed points of view

• how students may develop meaning and focus and interest in their work

• building understandings over time through various investigations and working in different forms.

While the course builds on Visual Arts courses in Stages 4 and 5, it also caters for students with less experience in Visual Arts.

HSC course

HSC course learning opportunities focus on:

• how students may develop their practice in artmaking, art criticism and art history

• how students may develop their own informed points of view in increasingly independent ways and use different interpretive frameworks in their investigations

• how students may learn about the relationships between artists, artworks, the world and audiences within the artworld and apply these to their own investigations

• how students may further develop meaning and focus in their work.

Industries related to Visual Arts

The knowledge and skills developed in this course can be applied across a range of career pathways.

Industries related to this course include, but are not limited to, the following outlined on the Your Career website:

• Arts and Recreation Services

• Education and Training

• Information Media and Telecommunications

Assessment: HSC course only