The purpose of the art program is to provide all students with a sequential comprehensive education in the visual arts through the study of art production, art appreciation, art criticism and aesthetics. Their experiences will enable them too recognize the role of art as integral to the continual pursuit of knowledge and its application to everyday life.
     Since the beginning of time, art has been a universal language and an essential part of history.  Through sensory, formal, technical and expressive properties it has been a vehicle of communication through the ages.  Quality visual arts education is a fundamental component of a complete education.  It is critical to every student’s success in the twenty-first century because it contributes to the development of human intelligence.
     It is the belief of the Art Educators of Cranston Public Schools that sequential art instruction is an essential part of elementary, middle and senior high education because it:

· Enhances cognitive, affective and psychomotor development.
· Balances the curriculum
· Encourages individuality and divergent thinking thorough problem solving and risk taking.
· Develops creativity and effective non-verbal communication.
· Fosters n appreciation of cultural diversity, heritage, history and other disciplines.
· Develops a sensitivity and appreciation for individual differences.
· Develops an awareness of sensory responses to natural and man bake objects.
· Develops technical skills.
· Provides the tools to make intelligent discriminating choices as consumers of art.
· Provides a basis for personal growth that promotes positive self-esteem.

Art educators work in concert to provide students with an equal opportunity for a substantive, comprehensive and sequential education in the visual arts.  Through a variety of instructional strategies and evaluation tools, all students learn how to make art, appreciate art, assess art and relate art to their everyday life.  Not all students will become artists.  However, an art education will provide every graduate with the knowledge, skills and values to become a creative worker, a lifelong learner and a responsible citizen.

NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS STANDARDS

NATIONAL ART EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 1994
Middle Level—Grades 5-8

1. Content Standard:  Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
Achievement Standard:
a. Students select media, techniques, and processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflects upon the effectiveness of their choices
b. Students intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas

2. Content Standard:  Using knowledge of structures and functions
Achievement Standard:
a. Students generalize about the effects of visual structures and functions and reflect upon these effects in their own work
b. Students employ organizational structures and analyze what makes them effective or not effective in the communication of ideas
c. Students select and use the qualities of structures and functions to improve communication of their ideas

3. Content Standard:  Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas

Achievement Standard:
a. Students integrate visual spatial and temporal concepts with content to communicate intended meaning in their artworks
b. Students use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks

4. Content Standard:  Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Achievement Standard:
a. Students know and compare the characteristics of artworks in various eras and cultures
b. Students describe and place a variety of art objects in historical and cultural contexts
c. Students analyze, describe, and demonstrate how factors of time and place (such as climate, resources, ideas, and technology) influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art

5. Content Standard:  Reflect upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others

Achievement Standard:
a. Students compare multiple purposes for creating works of art
b. Students analyze contemporary and historic meanings in specific artworks through cultural and aesthetic inquiry
c. Students describe and compare a variety of individual responses to their own artworks and to artworks from various eras and cultures

6. Content Standard:  Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

Achievement Standard:
a. Students compare the characteristics of works in two or more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or cultural context
b. Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual arts