PHILOSOPHY

A quality visual arts education is essential to the fundamental growth and development of all students. The North Allegheny Visual Arts Department believes that every student’s life will be enriched and improved through art education, that they will become life-long learners and patrons of art, and that they will join in the continuing conversation about the nature and meaning of art in life. All students benefit equally from art education and opportunities for art education should be accessible and inclusive for every child. As an important component of a well-rounded learning experience, visual arts education is a powerful influence in making students more discriminating and more sensitive to the things they see, use, and create in their everyday lives. The creation of art involves a structured creative process, in which its study serves to facilitate organization, planning, goal setting, research, idea formation, observational skills, creative thinking, risk-taking, personal realization, reflective habits, and the ability to carry an idea through to completion. The North Allegheny Visual Arts curriculum engages students in the artistic processes of creating, presenting, responding, and connecting, the processes in which are framed by the National Visual Arts Standards and are paramount to a quality visual arts education in the 21st Century. Engaging with the process of creating art helps students make informed, conscious aesthetic judgments and decisions. Visual arts education is significant to the development of creativity, which has become one of the most important attributes sought after by hiring organizations. From a global perspective, art education teaches visual literacy, which is vital to the development of citizens in our society. Art education fosters the capacity to appreciate diversity, and through art, students learn respect, attitudes, and values that have value in a global society.