About Visual Arts
All schools in the Savannah – Chatham County Public School System offer instruction in visual arts. Students who profess a serious interest in visual arts can apply for admission to the Esther F. Garrison Visual and Performing Arts Academy (K-8) and/or Savannah Arts Academy (9-12).
The Savannah – Chatham County Public Schools offer award-winning programs in visual art on all levels. Arts education is an important part of the total curriculum in all of our schools, and students are encouraged to participate in these programs throughout their years in our school system.
The Georgia Performance Standards for Visual Arts are designed to help students develop aesthetic perception, personal expression, and artistic skills. In a problem-solving context, students meet the challenges of focused study, engaging in higher-level integrative thought processes. Art is a means to engage all the senses for learning and expression. Art provides opportunities to develop inherent creative abilities. It also fosters and preserves individual identity, uniqueness, self-esteem, and personal accomplishment.
The Visual Arts Performance Standards affirm art as a process of inquiry into meaning and idea that is grounded in context and articulated in the purposeful manipulation of visual media. Analysis of products developed within this process can be used to enhance the student's own understanding of his or her thinking. This is developed through assessment and reflection. The habits of mind developed in each step of the process of inquiry articulated in the Performance Standards connect across the curriculum.
Art, when taught through a reflective pedagogy of care and responsibility, promotes self-esteem and positive relationships. It improves self-confidence and personal awareness. The study of art stimulates the imagination and encourages students to utilize their creative potential in learning about and producing original works of art. It promotes the development of personal and cultural identity for students. Art instruction provides opportunities for students to work individually and collaboratively to foster social development and cooperative interaction. Additionally, the standards promote an awareness of art as a vocation, avocation, and means for living an aesthetically rich life.
The creation of art offers opportunities for highlighting student achievement through school and community exhibits. The visual arts bring a layer of quality to the educational environment. The visual arts standards help students see art in a personal context and expand the concept to the community and the world. The arts are a bridge to understanding our own and other cultures.
Through a varied assessment program, students should have periodic opportunities to engage in inquiry-oriented lessons related to Visual Arts. Skills introduced in a given year are developed and become more proficient over time; once proficiency is reached, students continue to advance, increasing refinement and artistic independence. A varied assessment program with multiple types of formative and summative assessments provides the teacher, the student, and the parent with a measure of the student’s progress and mastery of the Georgia Performance Standards for Visual Arts.