Exploring Identities, Ideas and Global Issues Through Visual Arts
All students at AIS, from the Primary through Upper Schools, participate in the Visual Arts program, which provides them with an avenue to explore and inquire about the critical issues of the world—and to take action on them through artistic expression.
From the Primary Years Program
, to the Middle Years Program
, to the Diploma Program
, Visual Arts grows more advanced and sophisticated in nature. In varying degrees, students engage in the creative cycle—planning, creating, and evaluating art—and develop skills that benefit them not only in visual arts, but across other disciplines and throughout their lives.
In the Primary Years Program, we connect students’ visual arts learning with the transdisciplinary themes of the PYP. Children learn through the creative process and the exploration of various art media to express themselves visually. Each spring, we hold an art exhibition, for which students choose their favorite pieces of art to display.
In the Middle Years Program, we focus on building the creative capacity of students and helping them learn the skills to make their ideas visible. They also learn various technical skills of artmaking and some aspects of art history and art criticism.
In the two-year Diploma Program, students predominately drive their own visual arts curriculum, in that they choose the subject/theme of their artwork as well as the medium(s) to bring it to life. Over the course of the DP, students develop a body of artwork that demonstrates their individual visual explorations—both technical and conceptual—and display their collection in an annual senior exhibition.