The Visual Arts
The visual arts comprise a broad range of conceptual, material, and dimensional forms through which we communicate, learn about ourselves, and make meaning of the world. They involve people in making objects and images through which ideas, experiences, and feelings are made tangible. The visual arts link social, cultural, and spiritual action and belief and inform our relationships with other people and our environment.
Much of our experience of the world is visual. Visual experiences promote a variety of ways of describing and responding to the world and involve people in investigating, making, and interpreting art. People use the visual arts for particular aesthetic, spiritual, and practical purposes – for example, to construct and decorate their environments and to comment on their beliefs and values.
The visual arts stimulate our thinking and feeling. They are characterised by established conventions and methods of inquiry that are founded on the traditions of the past. They can also reflect the innovations of contemporary times by communicating information, promoting inquiry, expressing ideas, and presenting us with challenges to evolve new art forms and technologies.
Painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, photography, film and video, computer-generated art, performance art, and combinations of these forms are some of the visual arts that reflect the traditions and modern-day expressions of cultures and societies. Their forms and processes enable us to tell stories about ourselves, to express our personal and collective identities, and to participate in the local and global community.
