The Centre of the Visual Arts Butterfly

 The words “The Young Artist” appear at the centre of the visual arts butterfly to emphasize the following ideas:

• The overarching goal of the visual arts curriculum is to support, nurture, and inspire the growth of every student as an artist and as an artful learner.
• The student is at the centre. Students’ own feelings, perceptions, ideas, and expressions matter immensely.  It is critical that these are valued, explored, and celebrated within all art learning experiences.
• Every student is an artist, one whose growth and learning are best facilitated within rich, open-ended, hands-on art-making experiences.
• Artistry is learned. All students have artistic potential. In developing the skills, understandings, and values outlined within learning outcomes, students convert their potential to reality.
• Young artists matter! As students become capable of perceiving, thinking, and acting within the various media of visual arts, they journey into an important form of artistic literacy. In learning to communicate ideas, experiences, and feelings in ways that have no linguistic equivalent, students connect with the world and tap into their own creative capacities in new ways.

 As students learn to generate ideas, identify and solve artistic problems with imagination and flexibility, and communicate effectively in more ways, they begin a journey toward becoming creative, artistically literate adults – the kinds of citizens who will be able to participate in society with sensitivity, imagination, inspiration, and creativity.

The Wings Working Together
As one looks from the centre of the visual arts butterfly to the wings, a new set of relationships emerge. Each wing represents one of the essential learning areas into which the general and specific visual arts learning outcomes are organized:

• Art Language and Tools
• Creative Expression in Art
• Understanding Art in Context
• Valuing Artistic Experience

While the body of the butterfly evokes a holistic view of the student as a young artist, the wings articulate a range of learning outcomes that collectively support a path to comprehensive, balanced, and developmentally appropriate learning in visual arts. 

Although each essential learning area presents a distinct set of learning outcomes, their achievement is not intended to be realized in isolation. Just as real wings work synchronously with each other, the essential learning areas are intended to function in an integrated way. Rich thematic art-making experiences will invariably integrate learning outcomes from two, three, or all four areas.

The Wings Individually
The organization of learning outcomes into distinct, interrelated learning areas, or wings, is intended to give a clear outline of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students are expected to demonstrate at various grades. Each of the four areas contains the following components:

• Essential learning area: A statement summarizes the overall learning intent of the area or wing.
• General learning outcomes (GLOs): The GLOs are broad statements that identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students are expected to demonstrate with increasing competence and confidence from Kindergarten to Grade 8.
• Specific learning outcomes (SLOs): The SLOs detail learning expectations for students at either a specific grade or a range of grades.