About Academy

Arts - Department Overview

KLA Overview

Visual Arts

The Arts are a fundamental means of expression and communication in all societies. Through the Arts we gain a sense of our social and individual identity. Study in the Arts gives students access to the cultural diversity in their community and the broader Australian and international context. They learn to recognise and value the cultural forms and traditions that constitute artistic heritage.

The Visual Arts Department at the Academy of Mary Immaculate seeks to engage our students in both art practice and appreciation. The disciplines practiced are drawing, painting, print making, textiles, ceramics, visual communication and design, and studio arts-photography and art appreciation.

Through the Arts, students learn ways of experiencing, developing, presenting, interpreting, analysing and understanding ideas, values and cultural beliefs. They learn to take risks, be imaginative, question prevailing values and explore alternative solutions. They develop, practice and refine techniques, engage in Arts criticism and share opinions about the Arts.

The Arts key learning area encompasses four main goals:

  • To develop the intellectual and expressive potential of students through spatial, kinaesthetic, interpersonal and visual experiences

  • To equip students to use and understand the Arts forms by developing:

  • Skills, techniques and processes that provide structure for exploration and development of ideas as a basis for their personal expression

  • Abilities to present art works

  • Interpretive and analytical thinking in response to art and culture

  • To develop students' critical skills through describing, analysing, interpreting, and evaluating arts works made by themselves and others

  • To develop students' understanding that the Arts evolve within particular social and cultural contexts by studying how the Arts reflect, construct, reinforce and challenge values in their own and different cultures in both historical and contemporary perspectives.

Martin McInerney
Head of Visual Arts

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