The Visual Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum

The visual arts in the New Zealand Curriculum constitute a wide range of fields, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography, design, electronic media and film, and the history of art. Students become increasingly literate in the visual arts as they learn from example, practise ways of working, and explore and reflect on the conceptual, perceptual, and practical processes of two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and time-based art.

Students learn in, through, and about the various forms and processes of the visual arts. Through practical work and a study of others' art, they learn to make objects and images, to source and develop ideas, and to communicate and interpret meaning. They come to understand visual art works as social and historical texts as they investigate the contexts in which the visual arts are made, used, and valued.

Education in the visual arts may include the art forms of all cultures, past and present. In Aotearoa New Zealand, all students should have opportunities to learn about traditional and contemporary Maori art forms.

As makers and viewers, students gain knowledge about the content, structure, and meaning of art works and develop visual literacy in their representation and "reading" of the visual world. They develop appropriate critical skills and understandings as they analyse and question the parameters of visual arts practice.