Studio work
Students should be introduced to art concepts and techniques through practical work in the studio. To support students’ abilities to express themselves in visual arts, teachers should include, at both HL and SL, opportunities for a structured approach to:

· the exploration of media, including the use of material and equipment
· the exploration and development of artistic qualities in visual arts
· the study of relationships between form, meaning and content in visual arts
· the study of a variety of social and cultural functions of visual arts
· the appreciation and evaluation of their own work and that of others.

The development of studio techniques is essential to help students explore the potential for expression and to understand the relationship between theory and practice.

Teachers should facilitate wide-ranging independent investigation, which could be of a more experimental nature but also one that is concerned with form, meaning and content. Students should be encouraged to explore art, craft and design traditions from past, present and emerging cultural backgrounds, and local, national and international contexts.

At the end of the course, option A students should have produced studio work that communicates their understanding of conceptual content, their technical skill and their sense of critical awareness. They should also have developed an understanding of the artistic process from the generation of initial ideas through the various stages that lead to the completion of a final studio work.

At the end of the course, students should have a selection of studio work that has evolved from their in-depth contextual, visual and critical investigation. The studio work should be finished.

All work produced by students needs to reflect personal involvement and be linked to the investigation contained in their workbooks.

 

Choice of media
Artistic understanding and expression may be taught through various media from painting to puppetry, calligraphy to computer graphics, and sculpture to conceptual art. Students may demonstrate technical competence in various ways, provided their course of study includes an introduction to art elements, concepts and techniques. All work, both visual and written, should be documented in the investigation
workbooks.

When discussing the choice of media, teachers should help students to discover their individual strengths. Students should be made aware that the studio work assessment criteria reward the pursuit of ideas in a variety of media (students should not be discouraged from combining several media), the development of original approaches, the discovery of creative solutions and the acquisition of technical skills. However, students should be reminded that quality work that shows a developing maturity of artistic understanding at the end of the course is preferable to work that shows a superficial acquaintance with a large number of different skills and techniques.

As with all choices of media, visual arts students who wish to work in alternative or emerging media must remember that this is a visual arts course and their work will be assessed against criteria specific to visual arts.

Students must, in conjunction with their teachers, do the following.
· Refer to the visual arts assessment criteria
· Document, both visually and in writing, the work in their investigation workbooks

Collaborative work
The final assessment is an individual one and if students wish to work collaboratively on a project, teachers must ensure that the project is fully documented in each student’s investigation workbooks. Students who work collaboratively on a visual arts project must document their individual input and show evidence of their individual achievement. It is also essential for teachers and students to refer to the visual arts assessment criteria.