The Visual and Performing Arts Departments throughout Ridgefield Public Schools aim to create inspiring experiences that are common to all the arts: exploring, creating, performing, presenting, interpreting, connecting, and reflecting. We believe the arts promote awareness of the world and provide an opportunity to seek meaning through a creative process.
Art at Ridgefield Public Schools is based on the National Core Art Standards/Connecticut Arts Standards. These standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating, Presenting, Responding and Connecting. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards defines these processes as:
Creating : Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
Presenting: Interpreting and presenting artistic ideas and work.
Responding: Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning.
Connecting: Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Based on the interests and need of the students in a particular class, specific projects are selected and designed by the art teacher. Student art work is displayed throughout the school building.
Cr1.1 - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding - Creativity and innovative thinking are essential life skills that can be developed.
Essential Question - What conditions, attitudes, and behaviors support creativity and innovative thinking? What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative risks? How does collaboration expand the creative process?
Objective - The student will be able to combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art-making.
Cr1.2 - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding - Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.
Essential Question - How does knowing the contexts histories, and traditions of art forms help us create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources are needed to formulate artistic investigations.
Objective - The student will be able to identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art.
Cr2.1 - Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding - Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media, and art-making approaches.
Essential Question - How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
Objective - The student will be able to experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches through practice.
Cr2.2 - Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding - Artists and designers balance experimentation and safety, freedom and responsibility while developing and creating artworks.
Essential Question - How do artists and designers care for and maintain materials, tools, and equipment? Why is it important for safety and health to understand and follow correct procedures in handling materials and tools? What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
Objective - The student will be able to demonstrate quality craftsmanship through care for and use of materials, tools, and equipment.
Cr2.3 - Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding - People create and interact with objects, places, and design that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
Essential Question - How do objects, places, and design shape lives and communities? How do artists and designers determine goals for designing or redesigning objects, places, or systems? How do artists and designers create works of art or design that effectively communicate?
Objective - The student will be able to identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance.
Cr3.1 - Refine and complete artistic work.
Enduring Understanding - Artist and designers develop excellence through practice and constructive critique, reflecting on, revising, and refining work over time.
Essential Question - What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work? How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms? How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more completely?
Objective - The student will be able to create artist statements using art vocabulary to describe personal choices in art-making.
Pr.4.1 - Select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation.
Enduring Understanding - Artists and other presenters consider various techniques, methods, venues, and criteria when analyzing, selecting, and curating objects artifacts, and artworks for preservation and presentation.
Essential Question - How are artworks cared for and by whom? What criteria, methods, and processes are used to select work for preservation or presentation? Why do people value objects, artifacts, and artworks, and select them for presentation?
Objective - The student will be able to define the roles and responsibilities of a curator, explaining the skills and knowledge needed in preserving, maintaining, and presenting objects, artifacts, and artwork.
Pr5.1 - Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Enduring Understanding: Artists, curators and others consider a variety of factors and methods including evolving technologies when preparing and refining artwork for display and or when deciding if and how to preserve and protect it.
Essential Question: What methods and processes are considered when preparing artwork for presentation or preservation? How does refining artwork affect its meaning to the viewer? What criteria are considered when selecting work for presentation, a portfolio, or a collection?
Objective - The student will be able to develop a logical argument for safe and effective use of materials and techniques for preparing and presenting artwork.
Pr6.1 - Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
Enduring Understanding: Objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented either by artists, museums, or other venues communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding.
Essential Question: What is an art museum? How does the presenting and sharing of objects, artifacts, and artworks influence and shape ideas, beliefs, and experiences? How do objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented, cultivate appreciation and understanding?
Objective - The student will be able to cite evidence about how an exhibition in a museum or other venue presents ideas and provides information about a specific concept or topic.
Re7.1 - Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Enduring Understanding - Individual aesthetic and empathetic awareness developed through engagement with art can lead to understanding and appreciation of self, others, the natural world, and constructed environments.
Essential Question - How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art? How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world? What can we learn from our responses to art?
Objective - The student will be able to compare one's own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of others.
Re7.2 - Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Enduring Understanding - Visual imagery influences understanding of and responses to the world.
Essential Question - What is an image? Where and how do we encounter images in our world? How do images influence our views of the world?
Objective - The student will be able to identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.
Re8.1 - Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Enduring Understanding - People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
Essential Question - What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual art vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
Objective - The student will be able to interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.
Re9.1 - Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Enduring Understanding - People evaluate art based on various criteria.
Essential Question - How does one determine criteria to evaluate a work of art? How and why might criteria vary? How is a personal preference different from an evaluation?
Objective - The student will be able to recognize differences in criteria used to evaluate works of art depending on styles, genres, and media as well as historical and cultural contexts.
Cn10.1 - Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
Enduring Understanding - Through art-making, people make meaning by investigating and developing awareness of perceptions, knowledge, and experiences.
Essential Question - How does engaging in creating art enrich people's lives? How does making art attune people to their surroundings? How do people contribute to awareness and understanding of their lives and the lives of their communities through art-making?
Objective - The student will be able to apply formal and conceptual vocabularies of art and design to view surroundings in new ways through art-making.
Cn11.1 - Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
Enduring Understanding - People develop ideas and understandings of society, culture, and history through their interactions with and analysis of art.
Essential Question - How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures? How is art used to impact the views of a society? How does art preserve aspects of life?
Objective - The student will be able to identify how art is used to inform or change beliefs, values, or behaviors of an individual or society.