School - Learning Area Overview

Art Learning Area

In The Arts learning area students develop creative skills, critical appreciation and knowledge of artistic techniques and technologies in dance, drama, media, music, visual arts and combinations of arts forms. The Arts develop students’ sense of personal and cultural identity and equips them for lifelong involvement in, and the appreciation of the arts. Arts Understanding helps students to appreciate and critically respond to their arts experiences. Busselton Senior High School offers students courses in dance, drama, media, music and visual arts.

What is The Arts about?

The Arts learning area focuses student learning on Arts Practice and Arts Understanding. Through The Arts, students develop creative ways of expressing themselves and communicating with others.

Arts Practice involves the exploration and development of ideas and feelings through the use of a range of skills, and knowledge of arts techniques and processes. The Arts provide a powerful means of expression and communication of life experiences and imagination.

Arts Understanding helps students to appreciate and critically respond to their arts experiences. Students gain a sense of personal and cultural identity through critical appreciation of their own arts works and those of others. They come to understand broader questions about the values and attitudes held by individuals and communities.

Arts Practice and Arts Understanding are interrelated and are developed through the arts forms of dance, drama, media, music and visual arts and can be experienced singularly or in combinations. Each of the arts forms has its own unique language, conventions, processes and techniques.

In dance, students learn expressive movements using body, space, time and energy through participating in the key activities of choreography, performance and reflection.

In drama, students learn to take on roles and act out situations through the key activities of play making, performance and critical reflection.

In media, students learn how to communicate with print, film and electronic media through participating in the key activities of creation, production and analysis.

In music, students learn how to make music through sounds and silence using voice, body, acoustic and electronic means through the key activities of creation, performance and reflection.

In visual arts, students learn how to produce 2D, 3D and 4D (time-based) arts works through the interrelated key activities of visual inquiry, studio practice, exhibition and reflection.

Why teach The Arts?

Teaching The Arts provides students with the opportunity to:

• imaginatively explore, express and communicate ideas, feelings and experiences
• critically reflect and make personal meaning engaging the senses, imagination and feelings
• engage in creative problem solving, self expression and the use of imagination to develop personal, social and cultural understandings
• develop creative and physical talents through spatial, rhythmic, visual and kinaesthetic awareness
• develop self awareness, and understanding of their own and others’ cultures, values and attitudes
• expand life skills such as conflict resolution, creative problem solving, negotiation and teamwork
• provide support for concurrent learning in other learning areas
• acquire knowledge, skills and understandings essential for success in further study of The Arts.