The impulse to make art is common to all people. From earliest times, human beings have displayed a fundamental need to create and communicate personal and cultural meaning through art.

The process involved in the study and production of visual arts is central to developing capable, inquiring and knowledgeable young people, and encourages students to locate their ideas within international contexts. Supporting the principles of the IBO mission statement (that is, to foster students’ appreciation of diverse world cultures and traditions), the course encourages an active exploration of visual arts within the students’ own and other cultural contexts. The study of visual arts and the journey within it encourages respect for cultural and aesthetic differences and promotes creative thinking and problem solving.

Visual arts continually create new possibilities and can challenge traditional boundaries. This is evident both in the way we make art and in the way we understand what artists from around the world do. Theory and practice in visual arts are dynamic, ever changing and connect many areas of study and human experience through individual and collaborative production and interpretation.

New ways of expressing ideas help to make visual arts one of the most interesting and challenging areas of learning and experience. The processes of designing and making art require a high level of cognitive activity that is both intellectual and affective. Engagement in the arts promotes a sense of identity and makes a unique contribution to the lifelong learning of each student. Study of visual arts provides students with the opportunity to develop a critical and intensely personal view of themselves in relation to the world.

The Diploma Programme visual arts course enables students to engage in both practical exploration and artistic production, and in independent contextual, visual and critical investigation, with option A students focusing more on the former and option B students on the latter. The course is designed to enable students to study visual arts in higher education and also welcomes those students who seek life enrichment through visual arts.

Difference between HL and SL

Because of the nature of the subject, quality work in visual arts can be produced by students at both HL and SL. The aims and assessment objectives are the same for visual arts students at both HL and SL. Through a variety of teaching approaches, all students are encouraged to develop their creative and critical abilities and to enhance their knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of visual arts.

The course content for HL and SL may be the same. However, due to the different amount of time available for each, students at HL have the opportunity to develop ideas and skills, to produce a larger body of work and work of greater depth. In order to reflect this, the assessment criteria are differentiated according to option and level. Please see the markband descriptors in the “Assessment criteria” section for more detail. There need be no direct relationship between the number of works produced, the time spent on each, and the quality achieved: a high level of performance at either HL or SL can be achieved in both a large and small body of work.

Visual arts and prior learning

The Diploma Programme visual arts course is designed to offer students the opportunity to build on prior experience while encouraging them to develop and use new skills, techniques and ideas. While it is possible to take the Diploma Programme visual arts course without previous experience, this is helpful, particularly at HL option A (HLA).

Visual arts and the MYP

Those students who have completed the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) will already have engaged in a structured learning process in the performing and visual arts. This will allow them to develop further their experiences in visual arts at Diploma Programme level.

Visual arts and TOK

Students of group 6 subjects study the various artistic ways through which knowledge, skills and attitudes from different cultural traditions are developed and transmitted. These subjects, known collectively as “the arts” allow students to investigate and reflect on the complexities of the human condition. By exploring a range of materials and technologies, students should aim to develop an understanding of the technical, creative, expressive and communicative aspects of the arts.

Students of group 6 subjects analyse knowledge from various perspectives, and they acquire this knowledge through experiential means as well as more traditional academic methods. The nature of the arts is such that an exploration of the areas of knowledge in general, and knowledge of the different art forms specifically, can combine to help us understand ourselves, our patterns of behaviour and our relationship to each other and our wider environment.

Group 6 subjects complement the theory of knowledge (TOK) ethos by revealing interdisciplinary connections and allowing students to explore the strengths and limitations of individual and cultural perspectives. Studying the arts requires students to reflect on and question their own bases of knowledge. In addition, by exploring other Diploma Programme subjects in an artistic fashion, students can gain an understanding of the interdependent nature of knowledge and are encouraged to become “active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right” (IBO mission statement).

Whatever form visual arts take (for example, a personal expression of ideas, commercial enterprise or ritual), they share similar educational concerns and interests with TOK. The investigation workbooks are a particularly good vehicle to investigate issues related to life and knowledge as explored through the study of visual arts. For example, a student might wish to investigate controversial works and their impact on societies, and the extent to which an artist should or should not challenge standards of morality. Teachers are encouraged to refer to the Theory of knowledge guide (March 2006) for further guidance and information.

Questions related to TOK activities that a visual arts student might consider include the following.

• Why are the arts important?

• What do the subjects that make up the arts have in common?

• What are the roles of emotion and reason in the arts?

• To what extent do other Diploma Programme subjects have “artistic” qualities?

• What are the standards by which we judge art? Can we justify these standards, and, if so, how?

• What moral responsibilities does the artist have? Are they different to those of any other “knower”?

• Does the artist have a responsibility to reflect on the values, beliefs and attitudes of his or her time and place?

• To what extent does an artist have a moral obligation to avoid or confront controversial issues that might shock or be contrary to those of the common populace?

• To what extent does the work of the artist influence the culture in which it was created? To what extent does the existing culture influence the artist working within it?

• Is it possible for artistic expression in visual arts to take the place of words?

• Is it important for artworks to be original? Why?

• Is art simply an imitation of an idea?

• Is the artist’s intention relevant to the viewer?

• What do we expect from art? Truth? Seduction? Provocation? Beauty?

• What does it mean to say “I know an artwork”?

• What is art?