Course selection is coming up soon, have you been thinking about your pathways?

University Entrance subjects

Did you know that Visual Arts is a university pathway and a University Entrance subject?

This means that students with a goal of going to university can study this subject up to level three and even take it as a scholarship subject. Visual Arts is a really broad curriculum area. Senior students can study Sculpture, Painting, Printmaking, Photography or Art Design (digital). In fact, if you are a really passionate Visual Art student at NCEA level two and three, you can take more than one line of Visual Art and study two different Visual Art areas.

The Visual Arts are also a good way to gain literacy credits, with Art History and Visual Art research standards available from level one to level three (UE endorsed). Why not earn qualifications through studying artists you are passionate about and find out in-depth how and why they make art?

A wide range of Tertiary Pathways

It is a recommended school subject if you want to study these pathways at tertiary level : Animation, Architecture, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Film, Fine Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Textile Design, Product Design, Landscape Architecture, Photographer. These are just some of the study pathways that High School Visual Arts can lead to.

The Visual Arts lead to many career opportunities

Professional Artist:

painting, photography (digital and/or analogue,commercial/stock photographer, photo journalist and scientific photography), sculpture (ceramics, glass, wood, metal, soft materials, plastics, kinetic and installation), printmaking (screen printing, etching,woodcut), performance art, multi-discipline and video/digital interactive

Designer:

Architect, print 2D surface media, fashion design and illustration, textile design, packaging design, industrial design, furniture design, jewellery design, illustration advertising, typographer, art director, stylist,

Production in Film/video, staged live events, web, interactive and video game media:

3D modeller, Marquette and model maker costume designer, special effects make-up, story boarder, renderer, animator, concept artist, production researcher, continuity, matte painter, set design, lighting design, special effects, art director, director of photography, film editor, producer (digital/analogue or traditional)

Education:

art critic, art historian/theorist, teacher (secondary, tertiary, private or public), art teacher (early childhood, secondary, tertiary, adult education either public or private, arts education specialist in a gallery or city council, regional arts advisor, educational publications, director of a school for the creative arts, art therapist

Social/Government:

curator, director of a museum, gallery or archive, gallery technician, archivist/cataloguer, art restoration specialist, publicist, events management, cultural tourism guide, artist in residence, minister of the arts, creative arts council or creative arts and/or charity based NGO (public/private)

Studying the Visual Arts is good for the brain

In the 21st century in addition to literacy, numeracy, and NCEA certificates students needs skills like “critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration and leadership; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication” (Wagner, 2008). Visual Arts teaches students to think about how artists look at the world, helps them to develop their own voice within the Visual Arts, loads about problem solving and creating multiple solutions for their ‘visual inquiry’ AKA the art portfolio.

Furthermore, students learn about how to write well, about ideas and techniques used by artists, and their own ideas. These are all skills that are really transferable to any further student students do, or when students enter the workplace.

On top of all of this it seems that studying the Visual Arts is quite beneficial to Science students. A recent study in 2017 (Science Daily) found that medical students who took a Visual Arts course improved their observational skills. There is also a lot of research that suggests that Science students with an Arts background are able to think more laterally and tackle tricky problems.

“Creativity is as important as literacy … You can be creative in anything – in math, science, engineering, philosophy – as much as you can in music or in painting or in dance.” - Sir Ken Robinson, 2006