NATIONAL VISUAL ART STANDARDS 9-12
1. Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
a) Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence,
and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks
b) Students conceive and create works of visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the
communication of their ideas relates to the media, techniques, and processes they use
c) (Advanced) Students communicate ideas regularly at a high level of effectiveness in at
least one visual arts medium
d) Students initiate, define, and solve challenging visual arts problems independently using
intellectual skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

2. Using knowledge of structures and functions
a) Students demonstrate the ability to form and defend judgments about the characteristics
and structures to accomplish commercial, personal, communal, or other purposes of art
b) Students evaluate the effectiveness of artworks in terms of organizational structures and functions
c) Students create artworks that use organizational principles and functions to solve specific
visual arts problems
d) (Advanced) Students demonstrate the ability to compare two or more perspectives about the
use of organizational principles and functions in artwork and to defend personal evaluations of
these perspectives
e) Students create multiple solutions to specific visual arts problems that demonstrate competence
in producing effective relationships between structural choices and artistic functions

3. Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas
a) Students reflect on how artworks differ visually, spatially, temporally, and functionally, and describe
how these are related to history and culture
b) Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve
problems in daily life
c) (Advanced) Students describe the origins of specific images and ideas and explain why they are
of value in their artwork and in the work of others
d) Students evaluate and defend the validity of sources for content and the manner in which subject
matter, symbols, and images are used in the students' works and in significant works by others

4. Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
a) Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics
and purposes of works of art
b) Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied
cultures, times, and places
c) Students analyze relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics,
and culture, justifying conclusions made in the analysis and using such conclusions to inform
their own art making
d) (Advanced) Students analyze and interpret artworks for relationships among form, context,
purposes, and critical models, showing understanding of the work of critics, historians,
aestheticians, and artists
e) Students analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among
cultural/ethnic groups to formulate analyses, evaluations, and interpretations of meaning

5. Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
a) Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various
purposes, and justify their analyses of purposes in particular works
b) Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and
how they relate to historical and cultural contexts
c) Students reflect analytically on various interpretations as a means for understanding and
evaluating works of visual art
d) (Advanced) Students correlate responses to works of visual art with various techniques for
communicating meanings, ideas, attitudes, views, and intentions

6. Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
a) Students compare the materials, technologies, media, and processes of the visual arts with
those of other arts disciplines as they are used in creation and types of analysis
b) Students compare characteristics of visual arts within a particular historical period or style
with ideas, issues, or themes in the humanities or sciences
c) (Advanced) Students synthesize the creative and analytical principles and techniques of the
visual arts and selected other arts disciplines, the humanities, or the sciences