THE PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS

INTRODUCTION

Arts Education can help to develop a sense of achievement and personal worth. It provides students with knowledge that the Arts meet their needs and enables them to participate effectively in the cultural and artistic life of their community.

The fine Arts Programme is a student’s focused programme, which has a flexible structure to allow for the personal and professional development of every student. The various components through the modules are designed to give students an understanding of issues that help to understand the Arts in New Zealand in both a contemporary and historical context. The programme helps students analyze information and draw

The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum are:

· Powerful forms of personal, social, and cultural expression.

· Unique "ways of knowing" that enable individuals and groups to create ideas and images that reflect, communicate, and change their views of the world. The arts stimulate imagination, thinking, and understanding. They challenge our perceptions, uplift and entertain us, and enrich our emotional and spiritual lives. As expressions of culture, the arts pass on and renew our heritage and traditions and help to shape our sense of identity.

· That all art works are made, used, interpreted, and valued within social and cultural contexts and may be regarded as texts or commentaries that reflect history, tradition, and innovation.

· Integral to our sense of a distinctive, evolving national identity. European, Pacific, Asian, American, Indian, and African arts have progressively become part of the New Zealand cultural tapestry. Our cultural heritage now includes such traditional art forms as Celtic dancing and design, colonial architecture, orchestral and choral music, tapa and tivaevae, raku and earth-fired pottery, puppetry, dragon dances, plays, musical theatre, and landscape painting. New Zealand artists often draw on and combine such art forms, along with traditional Maori forms such as poi, whare whakairo, and moteatea, to create distinctive, contemporary art works.

· To enable people to participate in collaborative and individual pursuits that contribute to community and personal identity. New Zealanders are involved in many art forms and arts-related fields of employment. For example, they are painters, dancers, musicians, actors, writers, weavers, designers, composers, choreographers, architects, film-makers, educators, historians, curators, producers, therapists, and technicians. Many people also pursue careers outside the arts using analytical, creative, co-operative, entrepreneurial, and problem-solving skills that have been enhanced through learning in the arts.

The arts develop the artistic and
aesthetic dimensions of human
experience. They contribute to our
intellectual ability and to our social,
cultural, and spiritual understandings.
They are an essential element of daily
living and of lifelong learning.

The aims of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum are:

• to enable students to develop literacies in dance, drama, music, and the visual arts;
• to assist students to participate in and develop a lifelong interest in the arts;

· to broaden understanding of and involvement in the arts in New Zealand

These aims will be achieved as students develop skills, knowledge, attitudes, and understanding in a broad range of traditional and contemporary art forms of New Zealand and international cultures. Students will:

• develop practical knowledge in the arts, exploring and using the elements, conventions, processes, techniques, and technologies of each arts discipline;
• develop ideas in the arts, individually and collectively, drawing on a variety of sources of motivation to make art works;
• communicate and interpret meaning in the arts, presenting and responding to a wide range of art works;
• understand the arts in context, investigating art works and the arts in relation to their social and cultural settings.

The Arts develop the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of the human experience. They contribute to our intellectual ability and to our social, cultural, and spiritual understandings. They are an essential element of daily living and of lifelong learning.

The curriculum encourages the broadening of understanding and involvement in the arts in New Zealand. These aims will be achieved as students develop skills, knowledge, attitudes, and understanding, in a broad range of traditional and contemporary art forms of New Zealand and International cultures.

· Develop practical knowledge in the Arts, exploring and using the elements, conventions, processes, techniques, and technologies of each arts discipline.

· Develop ideas in the Arts, 'individually and collectively, drawing on a variety of sources of motivation to make art works.

· Communicate and interpret meaning in the Arts, presenting and responding to a wide range of art works.

· Understand the Arts in context, investigating art works and the arts in relation to their social and cultural settings.

If there is one thing Art Education does, it is to produce visually literate students. No other subject is equipped to do this and students have a right to a balance in the modes in which they understand their world.

Many thanks all the members of the Arts Department who have contributed to this document.

Christodoulos Moisa

HOD Performing and Visual Arts

Wanganui Girls’ College