Visual Arts

Elementary Art 

Our elementary arts program aligns with the National Core Arts Standards, challenging students to create, present, and respond to art while connecting learning to personal and external contexts. The program also connects strongly to PYP units, enabling students to explore central ideas and lines of inquiry through a visual art lens.

Examples of past units include:

• In Grade 1, students created three-dimensional portraits using real fruit and vegetables, then explored printmaking with cut fresh food.
• In Grade 2, students explored the work of Hundertwasser, imagining and drawing colorful cities and building large sculptures.
• In Grade 3, students explored how diversity contributes to identity by creating collaborative mixed-media collages and developing portraits in oil pastel.

Middle School Art

In Middle School Art, students explore diverse materials and techniques — including drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics — to build foundational skills and develop creative expression. Projects support creativity, craftsmanship, and emotional awareness while encouraging personal voice and confidence.

Middle School Art Courses

Middle School Art Class:

Students are introduced to a variety of artistic media and techniques, exploring different styles and movements in art. The course emphasizes foundational skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking, and encourages students to express their artistic voices. Units include relief printing, monoprints, linoleum cuts, color theory and mixing, brush techniques, contour drawing, shading, and embroidery/crochet.

Ceramics:

This course introduces the fundamentals of ceramic art, including the properties of clay, hand-building techniques, glazing, and firing. Students create both functional and sculptural pieces while exploring the history and cultural significance of ceramics. Units include pinch-pot plant pots, pinch-pot animal vessels, and coil technique.

High School Art

High School Art provides students opportunities to develop technical skill, conceptual understanding, and personal artistic voice through standard and higher-level IB courses. Through Art Exploration (experimentation and process-based learning) and Art in Action (creative expression connected to real-world contexts), students engage with diverse media and approaches to refine their craft and produce meaningful work.

High School Art Courses

Art in Action:

A course grounded in the belief that art is most powerful when connected to real-world contexts. Students refine skills while thinking independently, solving problems, and transforming ideas into meaningful projects. Through research, experimentation, and practice, they build technical expertise and conceptual understanding, with attention to artistic intention and audience.

Art Exploration

A course grounded in curiosity, creative risk-taking, experimentation, and reflective practice. Students explore a wide range of 2D and 3D forms — drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and mixed media — in traditional and contemporary contexts. Through hands-on learning, artist study, discussion, and collaborative inquiry, students develop an authentic artistic voice.

IB Diploma Programme Visual Arts

IB Visual Arts is rooted in the belief that students learn best when they think critically, create with intention, and explore the world through diverse artistic perspectives.

This course provides a studio and conceptual space where students grow as independent artists, researchers, and creators. They experiment with a wide range of media, investigate artworks with curiosity, and refine their artistic voice through continuous reflection and creative problem-solving.

Through sustained exploration, thoughtful research, and courageous risk-taking, students learn to communicate ideas with clarity, depth, and purpose. The program develops strong technical skills, visual literacy, cultural awareness, and the confidence to push their work beyond the expected.

IB Visual Arts encourages students to engage with the world around them, question assumptions, and use visual language to make meaning—ultimately becoming thoughtful, skilled, and globally minded artists.