Visual Arts

The goal of the Cherry Creek School District's Visual Arts Program is to enable students to develop their intellectual capabilities. To develop their mental capabilities and realize their fullest potential, students need to be exposed to many kinds of knowledge, to many ways of knowing their world and expressing their thought. Through experiences in visual arts, children learn to express themselves in terms of their own ideas and feelings. The visual arts provide knowledge about the world, its cultures and ways of experiencing them that contribute to an understanding that is unique.  

The visual arts develop the skills and knowledge necessary for students to successfully assume their respective roles in society as practitioners and patrons of the visual arts. The Visual Art program is designed to enhance the artistic, creative and expressive qualities of all students. Art opportunities are provided for every child to learn the skills of creating, analyzing, interpreting and evaluating works of art.

Guiding Principles and Beliefs

• A strong arts education is integral to learning and has a positive impact on overall student achievement and engagement in school.
• The Visual Arts Program capitalizes on students’ enthusiasm for discovery and inventiveness, and their need for development of cognitive, social and communication skills.  
• The Visual Arts Program uses a variety of media, art techniques and technology.  
• The artistic process intrinsically teaches students to innovate, problem-solve, think critically and work collaboratively with others – essential skills for career success.  
• An interdisciplinary approach establishes awareness of art and its place in our cultural heritage.
• Community resources offer valuable support and enhancement to an in-school arts education. As a matter of policy or practice, however, these kinds of activities cannot substitute for a comprehensive, balanced, sequential arts education taught by qualified teachers, as shaped by clear standards and focused by the content of the arts disciplines.
• The visual arts program provides all students with continuous and sequential study in the visual arts, which will simultaneously reveal the joy of aesthetic expression, the hard work of craftsmanship and the necessity of art within the complete human experience.