Looking at contemporary and historical practice as an increasingly important contribution to the Australian cultural, political and economic scene

SYLLABUS

MULTICULTURAL UNIT

Visual Arts
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
Department of Education and Training
Multicultural Project

Multicultural Education Priority Area
• Supporting quality learning through enhancing teachers’ skills & understanding of cultural diversity, inclusive teaching practice and multicultural perspectives.
• Promoting community harmony and anti-racism education by developing understanding amongst students and teachers of the importance of cultural identity and the skills to work in culturally diverse communities.
• Supporting students from culturally diverse backgrounds to value their contributions of culture to the broader Australian community through artistic practices and artists as role models.

Multicultural Cross-Curriculum Content: 7-10 Visual Arts
In Visual Arts an understanding of the importance and impact of different cultural practices is developed through the study of the conceptual framework and of how artmaking practice and artworks are developed within different frames most particularly, the cultural frame.

In the mandatory and elective courses teachers can focus on the contribution different cultures, beliefs and systems have on the visual arts, and the significance and value of visual arts in different times and places in the world including Australia. The diversity of cultures can be investigated through the conceptual framework and relationships between the artist, artwork, world and audience in understanding how notions of cultural identity inform artistic practice.

Difference and Diversity Cross-Curriculum Content: 7-10 Visual Arts
In Visual Arts experience of personal, social, spiritual and cultural differences is developed through practice and the study of artworks representing different frames.

In the mandatory course students begin to understand some relationships within the conceptual framework, to appreciate the diverse forms and styles that art can take and to appreciate individuals’ preferences for one over another. Teachers may focus on the development of a particular artist’s practice and establish how they have been influenced by the world and events.

In the elective course students investigate the relationships within the conceptual framework and how personal, social and cultural differences can be examined and represented in artworks. Students can focus on conventions and innovations in the representation of ideas, beliefs and perceptions about the world through the frames and conceptual framework.

Excerpts from the Rationale for Visual Arts in the Stage 6 curriculum
Visual Arts fosters interest and enjoyment in the doing, production and consumption of art, seeking to build informed citizens and discerning audiences for art and to raise the standard of cultural awareness in Australia. Visual Arts acknowledges the need to respect cultural diversity within Australia and in other regions and cultures.
Visual Arts places a high regard on how students develop an informed point of view and encourages tolerance, diversity and empathy between students, teachers and others in the expression of different points of view.

Visual Arts is of great relevance to students’ lives and enables them to gain increasing intellectual autonomy, evident in interpretations of their own work and the work of others. The subject rewards individual thinking in the representations of students’ ideas both aesthetically and persuasively. It offers students opportunities to engage in creative and inductive forms of inquiry and to be assessed on their production — through the making of artworks — as well as on their critical and historical understanding of art, demonstrated in their writing and talking about art.