What is Visual Arts about?
In conversation with
Beau Morgan
Jennie Williams
Donna Tupaea-Petero
Transcript below:
I think the biggest change is going to be, people are realising that we're crediting the process of visual arts a little bit more than we have in the past. We had the big finished works at the end, which was worth the most credits. So everybody did the folio, but we're going to see a lot more happening now, in terms of experimenting with different processes, visual research, or practice based research. I think that's going to be the biggest change.
That change, too, is going to impact positively on the experiences of our students. It's going to address some of that concern around the pressure on students, the workload. And get them back to actually enjoying the simplicity, and what is really authentic about the whole process of art making. Because it doesn't just happen, so that things are resolved at the end. The process is really important. It'll give the students a chance to take risks and try things that they haven't had before. Hopefully they'll see themselves more in the process.
I think one of the biggest changes is, for teachers in particular, is going to be around te mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori. I think, the change there is purely going to be around a change in the shift in thinking. And where we position ourselves in terms of our role in the delivery of our curriculum, in a way that is equitable.
I think you can see mātauranga Māori quite well in the big ideas of learning for visual arts, and within the significant learning as well. Because it's there, it really helped inform the development of the Standards. If we think of 1.1, working within a te ao Māori context, we're giving people the opportunity to explore, where we are in New Zealand at the moment. We're giving them the opportunity to have a look at mātauranga Māori. We have to start thinking more about how this is not just a shift for achievement Standards in schools for senior students. It's a shift, that's happening for everybody in New Zealand at the moment.
I think the focus has been very much on the achievement Standards. We've worked out some really good techniques to make sure, that all our kids achieve and do really well. But I think in this, they'll have a more complete learning journey. The significant learning really is the cheat code for visual arts. That's what it needs to be looked at, we need to be looking at that first. If we're really focused on providing holistic learning for our kids, then we need to be focusing as teachers on that learning matrix. When we're starting to rethink how we might do things differently, that is where you must start. To understand the big picture, in order to understand, how we thread these Standards together more coherently.
Not a challenge, but one of the eye-opening things of being a subject expert group member for visual arts was, that I had a really solid understanding of what visual arts was. And what a good practice was for teaching and learning. Based on my own experience, or an experience of a smaller group of teachers, generally in my region. But then, to be part of a group that spans the nation, and see, there's a wealth of other ways of looking at that subject, I learned a lot. I became quite reflective after every single time we met. I think you could not not change from that process. You brought that back into your own school and started to have those conversations with your colleagues, and that was a major thing. Then we'd come back and have a whole new lot to work through.
When you come into a SEG and you come into a group like this, it's not about bringing your own personal agendas. It is about working for the betterment of all of us. Tatou katoa, rather than bringing what we individually think is important.
One of the things, that our teachers do need to understand about the new Standards, is that they don't undo anything that was working for us. What they do is, they repackage them, and we re-look at, how we might bring a more equitable approach, in terms of what knowledge informs those Standards. It's not something to be afraid of. It's something that I think all of us have wanted to do in our teaching anyway. So we've tried to capture that.
Subject-specific terms can be found in the glossary.
Visual Arts students explore, refine, and communicate their own artistic ideas by responding to how art expresses identity, culture, ethnicity, ideas, feelings, moods, beliefs, political viewpoints, and personal perspectives. Through engaging in the visual arts, students learn how to discern, participate in, and celebrate their own and others' visual worlds.
Visual Arts literacy is developed through creativity and connection, inquiry and production, challenge and invention, and transformation and empowerment. Students create and respond to works using curiosity, collaboration, courage, critical thinking, and creativity. They confidently use iterative and cyclical processes of practising, selecting, reflecting, editing, and refining to create a cohesive and fluent artistic expression or body of work. By learning to identify Visual Arts conventions, students will also understand how these conventions communicate meanings through intention within established practice.
Students at Levels 6-8 of the New Zealand Curriculum engage with contexts that are typically broad, deep, and large in scale, and extend beyond personal experience. The contexts involve multiple interacting elements, contested ideas, provocative or nuanced interpretations, and require sustained engagement to understand. Students need to make sense of theoretical models and frameworks in order to make sense of the context(s) and apply them to their own work.
Big Ideas and Significant Learning
This section outlines the meaning of, and connection between, the Big Ideas and Significant Learning, which together form the Learning Matrix. It then explains each Visual Arts Big Idea.
The Arts Learning Area curriculum, including its whakataukī, inform this subject's Significant Learning – learning that is critical for students to know, understand, and do in relation to a subject by the end of each Curriculum Level. This covers knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes. It also includes level-appropriate contexts students should encounter in their education. The Learning Area's whakataukī is:
Te toi whakairo, ka ihiihi, ka wehiwehi, ka aweawe te ao katoa.
Artistic excellence makes the world sit up in wonder.
The subject's Big Ideas and Significant Learning are collated into a Learning Matrix for Curriculum Level 6, 7, and 8. Teachers can use the Learning Matrix as a tool to construct learning programmes that cover all the ‘not to be missed’ learning in a subject. There is no prescribed order to the Learning Matrix within each level. A programme of learning might begin with a context that is relevant to the local area of the school or an idea that students are particularly interested in. This context or topic must relate to at least one Big Idea and may also link to other Big Ideas.
Due to the nature of Visual Arts as a discipline, aspects of Significant Learning often cross over multiple Big Ideas and the structure of the Visual Arts Learning Matrix reflects this. The Big Ideas and Significant Learning stem from the categories of:
- Visual Arts Context - Understanding how art is made, viewed, and valued.
- Visual Arts Processes - Exploring and demonstrating how art practices operate.
- Visual Arts Practice - Applying visual arts contexts and understanding visual arts processes to make own work.
- Visual Arts Communication - Understanding how to communicate and interpret in the arts.
While it is important for students to have the opportunity to engage with all the Significant Learning, not all of it will be directly assessed. The Learning Matrix should not be thought of as a checklist of individual items to teach. Rather, these are aspects of learning that can be woven together to give students a foundational understanding in the visual arts that will enable them to demonstrate the skills and knowledge necessary for assessment.
The Learning Matrix enables rich engagement with mātauranga Māori, Pacific cultures, and the many cultures that ākonga may encounter or identify with, contributing to te ao Māori and recognising the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand. The diversity of individual learners is also recognised and valued.
There are seven Big Ideas in Visual Arts. The nature of this subject as a discipline means aspects of Significant Learning often cross over multiple Big Ideas, and vice versa.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, we respond to, and reflect on, our unique bicultural foundations, and the ethnically and culturally diverse society we share this land with, in current and historical contexts.
Art creates, embodies, cultivates, and shapes cultural forms. Making art requires access to authentic learning and representation through active participation. It is important to foster respect and understanding of toi Māori and art from diverse cultures. Place-based learning demonstrates first hand that the practice of art is always in a context, and established practices, tikanga, forms, and styles are related but not limited to time, place, space, people, ethnicity, culture, technology etc.
These established practices, tikanga, forms, styles, etc, can be learned from, selected, and used with intention. Art crosses subject boundaries so that students have a stronger understanding of the world and their place in it. As such, it is important that learners in the Arts in Aotearoa New Zealand value and respect te ao Māori, Pacific knowledges, and art from diverse cultures.
In order to develop their art practice and skills, learners should explore different starting points and processes for making work. This may include taking a collaborative approach in order to draw from the unique experiences and perceptions of their peers, as well as creating work in response to a proposition or as a means of self-expression - generating, analysing, and clarifying ideas systematically and in response to multiple sources of feedback. Fostering courage as artists, and developing the confidence to take risks, allows for new ideas and approaches to arise that greatly aid a student's progress and growth within their Visual Arts practice.
Critical reflection can be used to evaluate new outcomes (both expected and unexpected) and to provide divergent paths to explore further. This is reflected within the processes of making work, as 'making' in Visual Art involves trying new things, taking risks, and making mistakes, which can be reframed as valuable learning opportunities that help to refine skills and uncover new approaches to the overall artmaking process. It is also important to use and refine artistic vision and reflect on the impetus for making art.
Artists can use specific practices, processes, materials, techniques, technologies, and conventions to create work as intended. They generate, analyse, and clarify work in order to further refine an intended outcome. Learners should be able to demonstrate an iterative or cyclic process (or a combination of both) in the creation of artwork. They should value different processes and ways of making, and demonstrate an ability to create sustained, coherent works through these processes. These works can be presented in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, space, environment, lighting, time, movement, sound, and supporting materials, as well as in venues such as galleries, public areas, stages, and theatres.
It is important to learn to identify conventions from established practices, tikanga, forms, or styles (both in others’ work and one’s own), as well as understand how these conventions communicate meaning. Learners will gain understanding that these conventions are intrinsically linked to Aotearoa New Zealand's unique position within the Pacific, and will discover how the various nations and cultures that make up the Pacific use them to nurture and communicate ahurea tuakiri.
They can then use this concept to interpret, analyse, and value the intended meanings of artworks and develop an ability to deliver meaning in their own work with intention. Art can record, as well as challenge, social and cultural discourse. In exploring this, learners see how an artist can have agency when creating work, which can be a tool for powerful self-expression and evoke strong responses.
This idea connects particularly to whakapapa and the bicultural imperative in Aotearoa New Zealand to value mātauranga Māori, toi Māori, te reo Māori, and tikanga of tangata whenua. Learners should have opportunities to observe, participate, and reflect on processes used in te ao Māori traditions, and other cultures’ practices, to understand how hauora is promoted and how whakapapa is valued. Learners should be encouraged to demonstrate meaningful and practical understanding of mana whenua and how this applies to the learning of, and about, toi Māori. Tikanga, kawa, and te reo Māori can also be used to relate to diverse cultural art forms.
Many creative endeavours seek to create social change. Art and performance experiences and outcomes can provoke thinking and discussion around topics such as health and wellbeing or propaganda, and address many political, societal, historical, local, and global issues. Learning about art should therefore foster an understanding of creative action, as well as the ability to respond as a mode of creative action. Furthermore, active participation in the Arts can be an opportunity to celebrate diversity, create understanding, and explore self as a way of connecting with others. Visual Arts supports social sustainability by building and nurturing communities and relationships through the creation and exploration of art.
Within Māori and Pasifika contexts, for example, art can be viewed as a powerful tool to preserve and communicate cultural knowledge. This includes knowledge of spiritual, religious, or ceremonial practices, as well as knowledge of one's whānau or aiga. Collaboration and a focus on whanaungatanga when producing art allows for the knowledges and narratives of our communities to be protected and conveyed for others to learn from and be inspired by.
To understand the social impact of art in context, it is important to acknowledge and reflect on art, performance, experiences, and outcomes that are made in hapū, whānau, group, community, or global settings with a shared vision.
Within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand, active participants in the Arts should demonstrate an understanding of the role of taonga within te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori through research and experience. Learners in Visual Arts should have the opportunity to explore and understand how taonga can be both tangible and intangible, and how this concept might link to their creative outcomes.
Visual Arts embraces the whakataukī, "Ka mua, ma muri" - "Walking backwards into the future" - by nurturing cultural knowledges and practices from the past, making them accessible, and carrying them into the future. Through research, experience, and the creation of art, performance, outcomes, etc, ākonga will learn how connections can exist between people, places, objects, and narratives of learning over generations that are linked together by taonga.
Key Competencies in Visual Arts
Learning in Visual Arts provides meaningful contexts for developing Key Competencies from The New Zealand Curriculum. These Key Competencies are woven through, and embedded in, the Big Ideas and Significant Learning. Whether it's forming connections and relationships with clients and collaborators, communicating and interpreting meaning from an artwork, or recognising and exploring the personal, social, and cultural contexts from which artworks emerge, learners will gain skills and knowledge that will be carried with them throughout their artistic practice and beyond the learning environment.
Visual Arts education provides meaningful contexts for the development of the Key Competencies from The New Zealand Curriculum, which are deeply embedded in the Significant Learning:
Thinking
Students of Visual Arts will:
- think about why conventions are used and which conventions can be used for a particular outcome
- develop thinking and literacy during the artmaking process as students communicate and interpret meaning
- inquire, self-reflect, analyse, and make decisions through the creation of art as a process that generates thinking.
Using Language, Symbols, and Text
Students of Visual Arts will:
- use language, symbols, and text in the production of their own art
- understand and use the discipline-specific language of art as they engage with the concepts and epistemic knowledge involved in the artmaking process.
Relating to Others
Students of Visual Arts will:
- engage in collaborative artmaking
- communicate with an audience
- have an understanding of the social context art makers draw from when making work.
Managing Self
Students of Visual Arts will:
- be aware of the context they come from and the context they are working in, whether they are making art as a means of self-expression or as a response to a proposal or social issue
- value their own tacit knowledge
- understand that their viewpoint is shaped by their own context and experience and is not universal.
Participating and Contributing
Students of Visual Arts will:
- recognise that all art making happens in context in order to understand established practice
- participate in, and contribute to, wider artistic discourse.
Key Competencies
This section of The New Zealand Curriculum Online offers specific guidance to school leaders and teachers on integrating the Key Competencies into the daily activities of the school and its Teaching and Learning Programmes.
Connections
The four Visual Arts strands underpin the approach of generating and refining artistic ideas through cycles of action and reflection:
- Understanding the Arts in Context
- Developing Practical Knowledge in the Arts
- Developing Ideas in the Arts
- Communicating and Interpreting in the Arts.
These strands are not separate areas of learning, but four key skill areas that are intrinsically connected. For instance, in order to communicate and interpret effectively in Visual Arts, it is necessary to understand the visual arts in context.
Learning Pathway
At School
In the arts, students learn to work both independently and collaboratively to construct meanings, produce works, and respond to and value others’ contributions. They learn to use imagination to engage with unexpected outcomes and to explore multiple solutions. Studying arts subjects therefore helps to develop critical thinking and the ability to interpret the world around us. As students express and interpret ideas within creative, aesthetic, and technological frameworks, their confidence to take risks can increase. Visual Arts celebrates, fosters, and protects knowledge from the multitude of diverse cultures within Aotearoa New Zealand, including Māori and Pacific identities.
Working on long term art projects is an opportunity for students to hone their self-management skills, which prepares them for more independent work at Levels 2 and 3, as well as life beyond school. Visual Arts learning is relevant for students who are studying a wide range of other subjects where attention to detail, creating and interpreting images, and critical thinking are all important skills.
At Tertiary Level
Study in Visual Arts encourages students to pursue interests in art such as in painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, moving image, sound, performance, social practice, multimedia approaches, and new and emerging technologies. It also offers a stepping stone into arts education, and provides a pathway to teaching art within secondary and tertiary learning environments as a career opportunity.
Many tertiary courses require students to present their work collaboratively, creatively, and clearly, while communicating key messages and content effectively. Visual Arts skills are foundational to communicating ideas and information through a range of media such as infographics, visual presentations, or assignments.
Learning for Life
How do these skills transfer to the world of work? What kinds of occupations and jobs exist for those who study creative subjects at secondary school? Visual Arts learning is relevant to a wide range of occupations and there are exciting new art-related occupations being created all the time. The internet, offering new and diverse ways of communicating visually, has created increased demand for people with design and other visual art skills. People who can create interest and reach a wide audience via visual imagery are sought after in a range of work contexts. Visual Arts provides a lifelong skillset and is an exciting area of learning that is continually evolving.
Toi Māori
In studying Visual Arts, akōnga can draw from and develop their own culture, personal experiences, and skills. These may include traditional artmaking practice such as rāranga and whakairo, and may transfer into contemporary practice such as digital rendering or creating a zine. These skills can lead to exciting careers in:
- raranga weaving design
- art studio or exhibition space operation
- whakairo carving design
- tā moko
- kōwhaiwhai
- typography
- secondary school teaching
- kura kaupapa Māori teaching
- tertiary art and Māori art education
- Māori curation of public museums
- exhibitions and galleries
- Māori history
- Māori graphic design
- corporate of government commissioned marae wānanga workshops
- tourism
- production management of artistic work for Māori stage, theatre, performance, television, and advertising
- site-specific installation specialisation
- producing large scale paint or print works
- digital content design or marketing
- 2, 3, or 4 dimensional art
- audio and visual recording.
Further possible jobs and occupations in the Arts industry include:
Digital and Multi-media
2D or 3D modeler or artist, game artist, animator, digital designer, marketing and social media designer, product designer, CAM designer, shader artist (game development), TV and film producer, special effects artist.
Education
Secondary art teacher, tertiary lecturer, tertiary tutor.
Fashion and Textiles
CAD or CAM operator, dressmaker, fashion designer, pattern maker and grader, production manager, studio assistant, stylist, marketing and social media, textile designer.
Fine Art
Graphic illustrator, commercial artist, draftsperson, special effects, painter.
Graphic Design
Advertising, branding and marketing advisor, digital conversion designer, graphic designer, packaging designer, signwriter, magazine layout, typographer.
Photography
Advertising, events, fashion, landscape, portraits, sports videographer and content creator.
Product Design
Ceramics, pottery, industrial designer or model designer, jeweler, toy designer, weaver.
Spatial Design
Architect, interior designer, landscape architect and design, traffic management planner, urban planner.
Writing and Analytical
Art historian, art critic, curriculum designer, graphic novelist, arts administrator.
Other
Art conservationist, art dealer, art therapist, artist agent, tattoo artist, UX (user experience) designer, marketing and brand specialist, social media adviser, broadcast editor.
Introduction to Sample Course Outlines
A Sample Course Outline has been produced to help teachers and schools understand the new NCEA Learning and Assessment Matrices. An example of how a year-long Visual Arts course could be constructed using the new Learning and Assessment Matrices is provided. It is indicative only and does not mandate any particular choice of text or approach.
More detailed sample Teaching and Learning Programmes will be developed during piloting.
Assessment Matrix
Conditions of Assessment for internally assessed standards
This section provides guidelines for assessment against internally assessed Standards. Guidance is provided on:
- appropriate ways of, and conditions for, gathering evidence
- ensuring that evidence is authentic
- any other relevant advice specific to an Achievement Standard.
NB: Information on additional generic guidance on assessment practice in schools is published on the NZQA website. It would be useful to read in conjunction with these Conditions of Assessment.
The school's Assessment Policy and Conditions of Assessment must be consistent with the Assessment Rules for Schools With Consent to Assess. These rules will be updated during the NCEA review. This link includes guidance for managing internal moderation and the collection of evidence.
For all Standards
Internal assessment provides considerable flexibility in the collection of evidence. Evidence can be collected in different ways to suit a range of teaching and learning styles, and a range of contexts of teaching and learning. Care needs to be taken to allow students opportunities to present their best evidence against the Standard(s) that are free from unnecessary constraints.
It is recommended that the design of assessment reflects and reinforces the ways students have been learning. Collection of evidence for the internally assessed Standards could include, but is not restricted to, an extended task, an investigation, digital evidence (such as recorded interviews, blogs, photographs or film), or a portfolio of evidence.
It is also recommended that the collection of evidence for internally assessed Standards should not use the same method that is used for any external Standards in a programme/course, particularly if that method is using a time bound written examination. This could unfairly disadvantage students who do not perform well under these conditions.
A separate assessment event is not needed for each Standard. Often assessment can be integrated into one activity that collects evidence towards two or three different Standards from a programme of learning. Evidence can also be collected over time from a range of linked activities (for example, in a portfolio).This approach can also ease the assessment workload for both students and teachers.
Effective assessment should suit the nature of the learning being assessed, provide opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students, and be valid and fair.
Authenticity of student evidence needs to be assured regardless of the method of collecting evidence. This needs to be in line with school policy. For example: an investigation carried out over several sessions could include teacher observations or the use of milestones such as a meeting with the student, a journal, or photographic entries recording progress etc.
The material for this Standard will be student-generated visual information.
Students will produce eight (minimum) to ten (maximum) A3 pages, or digital equivalent, of visual and written research related to Aotearoa New Zealand's Māori foundations, another cultural context, and their different visual aspects.
Teachers should ensure the rigour of the outcome is appropriate for Level 6 of the New Zealand Curriculum.
Evidence may be presented by the student in a range of forms, including:
- annotated visual information
- oral presentations
- written information
- digital formats
- audio and visual recordings
- workbook.
Students will be expected to engage with authentic contexts. Furthermore:
- a practice of cultural safety is vital when working within Aotearoa New Zealand's Māori foundations and any diverse cultural context
- to ensure cultural safety, teachers and students are advised to ensure full understanding as to the tikanga and cultural milieu associated with the activity by accessing appropriate expertise, such as local iwi and kaumātua.
- this includes acknowledgement of mana whenua.
- students should begin to develop good practice around referencing and attribution of third-party content images included in their work.
Student evidence for this standard cannot be used as evidence for Achievement Standard 1.4 Create a sustained body of artwork.
Teachers should ensure the rigour of the outcome is appropriate for Level 6 of the New Zealand Curriculum.
Evidence may be submitted in a range of traditional and contemporary modes using a clearly defined set of conventions. For example:
- whakairo
- raranga
- kōwhaiwhai
- site specific installation
- large scale works, eg, painting or print
- digital formats and rendering
- 2, 3, or 4 dimensional
- audio and visual recordings.
Photographic evidence must be accompanied by short captions that explain the context and then identifies the design and production conventions (characteristics and constraints).
Artworks must be clearly labelled if displayed as part of an exhibition or within a gallery space (including the artist's name, the title of the artwork, and a brief description). The label should then be included as part of the photographic evidence.
Photographs must be of a suitable file size (recommended up to 300 MB max) and the captions should be as succinct as possible.
Furthermore:
- a practice of cultural safety is vital when working within te ao Māori and any diverse cultural context
- to ensure cultural safety, teachers and students are advised to ensure full understanding as to the tikanga and cultural milieu associated with the activity by accessing appropriate expertise, such as local iwi and kaumātua.
- this includes acknowledgement of mana whenua.
- students should begin to develop good practice around referencing and attribution of third-party content images included in their work
- this Achievement Standard provides opportunity for group work and collaborative artmaking practice. Evidence of learning must be clearly attributed to an individual for assessment.