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Understand this learning area

The Arts

Introduction

The Australian Curriculum: The Arts comprises 5 subjects:  

  • Dance 
  • Drama 
  • Media Arts 
  • Music 
  • Visual Arts. 

The Arts curriculum is written on the basis that all students will study The Arts from Foundation to the end of Year 8. State and territory school authorities or individual schools will determine how the curriculum is implemented. There is flexibility for schools to develop teaching programs that may involve integrated units within The Arts and/or across the curriculum. Schools may also form partnerships with the arts industry to complement provision of The Arts curriculum.  

  • In primary school, the curriculum has been developed to allow for the study of the 5 arts subjects from Foundation to Year 6.  
  • In Years 7 and 8, the curriculum has been written to allow students to experience one or more arts subjects in depth.  
  • In Years 9 and 10, the curriculum is written to allow students to specialise in one or more arts subjects. 
Rationale

The arts are as old as humanity. They are part of every culture and central to the diverse and continuing cultures of First Nations Australians. Through the arts, people share stories, ideas, knowledge and understanding. The arts engage our senses and give us ways to imagine, celebrate, communicate and challenge ways of knowing, being, doing and becoming. 

 

Participating in quality arts experiences and practices enriches our social and emotional wellbeing. It fosters development of our imagination and enables us to reach our creative and intellectual potential. The distinctive languages, knowledges and practices of each arts subject in the Australian Curriculum enable learners to play, explore, question, challenge and imagine new possibilities as they create, embody, design, represent, collaborate and communicate ideas, emotions, observations and experiences. The arts foster rich cross-curriculum opportunities for learners as they grow in their understanding of self and others, and as they make sense of, interpret and respond to their real and imagined worlds. 

 

Rich in tradition, the arts play a major role in the development and expressions of diverse cultures and communities, locally, nationally and globally. The exploration of cultures and histories through Arts learning strengthens understanding of Australia’s cultural diversity and develops critical intercultural understandings to inform decision-making and aesthetic choices. Students communicate meaningful ideas in conventional and innovative arts forms. They use arts knowledge, practice and understandings to learn and make meaning as artists and as audiences, taking opportunities to engage with arts organisations, creative industries and arts professionals.  

 

Through the arts, students learn to express their ideas, thoughts, questions, understandings and opinions. They develop aesthetic knowledge and learn that the creative and critical processes of each Arts subject are essential to learning in, about and through The Arts.   

 

The arts are core to the development of creative, confident, compassionate and resilient individuals who can think and reflect critically, celebrate and challenge ideas, people and events, and work towards making a difference in sustaining and reimagining their own and their communities’ futures. 

Aims

The Arts aims to develop students’:   

  • creativity, critical thinking, aesthetic knowledge and understanding about arts practices  
  • knowledge and skills to imagine, observe, express, respond to and communicate ideas and perspectives in meaningful ways   
  • use of available resources and materials including digital tools  
  • empathy for multiple perspectives and understanding of personal, local, regional, national and global histories and traditions through the arts 
  • engagement with the diverse and continuing cultures, arts works and practices of First Nations Australians  
  • understanding of local, regional, national and global cultures, and their arts histories and traditions, through engaging with the worlds of artists, arts works, audiences and arts professions. 

These aims are extended and complemented by specific aims for each subject in The Arts. 

Structure

The Arts is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation being presented as a single year.

Figure 1: The Arts subjects 

 

In Dance, students use the body to communicate and express meaning through purposeful movement. Dance practice integrates choreography, performance, and responding to dance and dance making. Students experience and explore dance created and performed across diverse contexts, styles and forms, and build understanding of how dance uses the body and movement to communicate ideas and meaning. 

 

In Drama, students create, perform and respond to drama as artists and audiences. They learn to use, manage and manipulate the elements and conventions of drama across a range of dramatic forms and styles. Students learn in, through and about drama as they create dramatic action and communicate dramatic meaning.  

 

In Media Arts, students use images, sound, text, interactive elements and technologies to creatively explore, produce and interpret stories about people, ideas and the world around them. They explore the diverse cultural, social and organisational influences on media practices, and draw on this understanding when producing and responding to media arts works.  

 

In Music, students listen to, compose and perform music from a diverse range of styles, cultures, traditions and contexts. They create, organise, manipulate and share sounds in time and space, and critically analyse music. Music practices are aurally based and focus on developing and applying knowledge and skills through sustained musical engagement and experiences. 

 

In Visual Arts, students learn in, through and about visual arts practices, including the fields of art, craft and design. They experience and explore visual artworks created by artists working in diverse contexts, styles and forms, and build understanding of the significance and impact of visual arts practice and culture for themselves and local and global communities. 

 

In The Arts, in Foundation to Year 6, achievement standards are provided for each subject and for the learning area. The learning area achievement standard may be useful when schools are teaching integrated Arts programs and help with manageability of reporting in the primary years. 

 

Strands 

 

In The Arts, content is organised in each of the 5 subjects under 4 interrelated strands. The 4 strands are:

In this strand students learn as artists and as audience. They explore: 

  • ideas, practices, works and contexts for the arts in the lives of individuals and groups across cultures, times, places and communities 
  • the diversity of how, where and why people create, make, perform, present and respond across arts forms, and the roles that the arts play in lives, cultures and communities 
  • the diversity and significance of the arts for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • ways in which the arts communicate cultural and aesthetic knowledge, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • ways in which the arts develop empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives, across personal, local, regional, national and global contexts. 

They respond using arts practices and forms, language, imagery, sounds, movement and/or digital tools.  

This strand is about developing practices and skills in and across Arts subjects through play, imagination, experimentation and creative and critical thinking. As artists and as audiences, students develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative skills for
    • using and manipulating the elements, principles, conventions and/or processes of arts forms 
    • using available materials and technologies to develop and communicate ideas, perspectives and/or meaning 
  • critical skills in observing, reflecting, analysing, evaluating and/or documenting their own and others’ arts-making practices, using language and/or embodied practices. 

In this strand, as artists, students apply subject-specific and multi-arts creative processes. Students create and make: 

  • individual and/or collaborative work using available resources/materials in diverse existing, emerging and innovative forms, styles and/or genres  
  • new work, which may be refined and realised, or may be presented as a work in progress  
  • interpretations of work created by others and interpretations of their own work as performers; interpreting involves informed observation, analysis, reflection and evaluation.  

This strand is about artists sharing work and ideas with audiences in ways that are appropriate to the work and the artist’s intentions. Presenting includes exhibiting or screening. Students:  

  • share their work using available spaces, materials, technologies and/or digital tools   
  • plan, select, design and rehearse their presentations and performances  
  • employ technical, expressive and performance skills (as appropriate) 
  • observe and, as appropriate, participate in interactions between artists and audiences. 
Key considerations

The big ideas central to The Arts curriculum are: 

  • all students have creative and expressive potential 
  • making and responding are interwoven creative processes that happen through the practices of The Arts subjects 
  • creative processes are flexible and cyclical; they involve doing and knowing 
  • artists learn from work they experience, and they are an audience for their own work 
  • exploring, investigating, reflecting on and interpreting their own and others’ works, cultures, worlds, ideas and contexts allows students to learn in, through and about The Arts 
  • aesthetic knowledge is developed through embodied and critical engagement across cognitive, sensory and physical domains 
  • critical engagement with arts works and practices develops empathy and contributes to the lives of people, cultures and communities. 
Learning through the practices of Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts 

 

Arts learning involves deep engagement through the continuing and emerging practices of The Arts subjects. Understanding how the practices of each subject are being used in dynamic and innovative ways across cultures and communities supports students’ understanding of how they can contribute to their world. Schools make decisions about the subjects and forms students engage in within their Arts learning. For example, students may explore and create:   

  • arts works that exist in physical, digital or virtual spaces   
  • individual or collaborative arts works    
  • arts works that use materials and technologies in traditional and/or innovative ways 
  • arts works in traditional, conceptual, site-specific, hybrid, multimodal or trans-disciplinary forms   
  • arts works where the audience is a co-creator with the artist.   
Creative processes 

 

Creative processes are flexible and involve cyclical stages. The order of these stages may vary, and each can be revisited and repeated as needed. Stages in a creative process can include exploration, response, experimentation, skill/process development, transformation (literal or abstract), analysis, creation, reflection, presentation, performance, interpretation, communication and/or sharing.  

 

Contexts 

 

The Arts provides flexibility for teachers to plan learning that enables students to engage with examples of arts practice from diverse cultures, times, places and/or other contexts. This can include examination of works and practices that are representative of past, current and emerging arts traditions, forms and genres/styles. For example, learning may focus on: 

  • artists who represent a diverse range of cultures, genders, contexts, times, places and/or settings; such as living artists including those from local, regional or national communities; artists whose work is celebrated; artists who hold a place of significance within a culture or community; emerging artists and/or those whose work is innovative and/or challenging 
  • artists who work with a diverse range of media, materials and techniques, equipment and instruments, technologies, genres/styles and/or forms 
  • artists, activists and/or advocates whose practice focuses on using the arts to take action to address current issues; such as social, environmental and/or political issues 
  • artists who work individually and/or collaboratively, within and/or across disciplines, locally and/or globally 
  • examples of the diverse roles the arts play for people, cultures and communities; such as arts works, events, traditions and/or practices that are significant, celebrated and/or controversial. 
Protocols for engaging First Nations Australians   

 

When planning teaching activities involving engagement with First Nations Australians and/or arts works or cultural expressions created by First Nations Australians, teachers should follow protocols that describe principles, procedures and behaviours for recognising and respecting First Nations Australians and their intellectual and cultural property.  

 

Teachers should use approved resources, appropriate to their location, such as those that may be provided by their state or territory school system, or First Nations Australians education consultative groups, or other protocols accredited by First Nations Australians; for example, information about Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) and protocols for respecting these rights in Australia is available on the Australia Council for the Arts website. 

 

While the Australian Curriculum uses the terms “First Nations Australians” and “Aboriginal First Nations Peoples”, there may be other terms that First Nations Australians of a particular area or location prefer. It is important to use the terms preferred in a particular area or location.   

 

Meeting the needs of diverse learners   

 

The Australian Curriculum values diversity by providing for multiple means of representation, action, expression and engagement and allows schools the flexibility to respond to the diversity of learners within their community.  

 

All schools have a responsibility when implementing the Australian Curriculum to ensure that students’ learning is inclusive, and relevant to their experiences, abilities and talents. 

 

For some students with diverse languages, cultures, abilities and talents it may be necessary to provide a range of curriculum adjustments so they can access age-equivalent content in the Australian Curriculum and participate in learning on the same basis as their peers.

 

Adjustments to the delivery of The Arts may involve but are not limited to: 

  • providing multi-sensory visual, auditory, tactile, and/or kinaesthetic experiences and resources 
  • using resources and strategies such as picture cues or illustrative signs and labels for words such as key-subject terms, or steps in a process  
  • providing modified arts tools or accessible equipment or using approaches that enable students to participate in arts-making activities 
  • acknowledging equivalent terminology; for example, cultural or geographic differences in terminology  
  • designing open-ended tasks that provide flexibility and can be completed at different levels of complexity 
  • showcasing the practice of artists/performers who have adapted “typical” practice to suit their needs or whose work reflects aspects of their life, such as physical or mental health. 

 

Materials, technologies and forms  

 

The Arts gives teachers flexibility to plan learning activities that focus on arts works, artists, practices and contexts from diverse cultures, times and places. Teachers also make decisions about which forms, stimulus and other materials, digital tools and other resources will be used in arts learning.  

 

The curriculum is designed to facilitate an inclusive approach that: 

  • recognises the diverse physical, sensory or cognitive abilities students use to experience arts works and practice  
  • allows students to learn in a culturally inclusive and supportive environment free from prejudice and discrimination. Culturally inclusive learning recognises the language, culture, practices, rituals, knowledges and beliefs of each student and their families.  
  • uses available resources including digital tools. 

Immersive technologies 

 

When using immersive technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR) or Extended Reality (XR), for Arts learning, consideration must be given to the manufacturer’s guidelines. Teachers should consider the physical, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and moral developmental stage of learners before using immersive technologies in their classrooms. The eSafety Commissioner provides explicit advice on the risks of immersive technologies use in their position statement, https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/tech-trends-and-challenges/immersive-tech. 

 

Viewpoints 

 

Viewpoints are an inquiry tool for considering the arts from multiple perspectives, as artist or as audience. Students use questions based on Viewpoints to initiate and guide their explorations and responses, creative and critical practices, evaluation and reflection, and to inform decisions about performance/presentation of their work. For example, they may develop questions based on Viewpoints to: 

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting 
  • explore ideas and make decisions 
  • explore and develop empathy for multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meaning 
  • think deeply about their own arts works and art created by others. 

Viewpoints provide perspectives and contexts such as: 

  • Personal and imaginative – fostering students’ agency and voice through reflecting on ideas and putting thoughts into action; reflecting on and responding to their own art making; observing, exploring and responding to arts works and practices 
  • Cultures and worlds – thinking as artists and as audience about contexts for arts practice; considering, for example, social, cultural, historical and/or environmental ideas and meanings that arts works and/or experiences represent and/or communicate 
  • Conventions and processes – developing practices, acquiring knowledge, reflecting, creating, developing language to communicate ideas, exploring techniques, responding to ideas and materials before, during and after arts making and/or critiquing.
Viewpoints

 

Viewpoints provide perspectives and contexts such as:

Fostering students’ agency and voice through reflecting on ideas and putting thoughts into action; reflecting on and responding to their own art making; observing, exploring and responding to arts works and practices.  

 

Sample questions: 

  • Am I the artist?  
  • Who made this artwork?  
  • What do I want to know or notice about my artwork?  
  • What do I want others to know about my artwork?  
  • Who is the audience for this artwork?  
  • How can I shape my artwork to share my point of view?  
  • Why is this artwork working out successfully? What am I doing creatively?  
  • How do I feel about …?  
  • What would happen if …?  
  • Who can I discuss my next step with?  
  • How can I …? What will I need to think about? 
  • What does this work mean to me? How does it represent my identity? 

Thinking as artists and as audience about contexts for arts practice; considering, for example, social, cultural, historical and/or environmental ideas and meanings that arts works and/or experiences represent and/or communicate. 

 

Sample questions: 

  • What are artworks?  
  • Why do artists make work? For whom?  
  • What is this artwork about?  
  • What do I know about the cultural context for this work? What do I want to know? What do I need to know?  
  • What are the cultural responsibilities of the artist who made this work?  
  • Is this work challenging stereotypes or ideas?  
  • Where, why and how was this work originally made and presented to audiences?  
  • What is this work saying about social structures such as those associated with identity, religion, politics, gender or class?  
  • What was happening in the world when this work was being made?  
  • What about this work situates it as being created in a particular time or place?  
  • How does this work communicate with audiences?  
  • How does our understanding of a culture or community help us communicate effectively?  
  • Is my understanding of the work similar or different to understandings of other audiences? How? Why?  
  • When I create or perform a work, what is my cultural message?  
  • How does this work relate to my culture? To my life?  
  • How can we ensure that artworks are preserved for future generations?  
  • How can we use the arts to inspire positive action and change? 
  • What do we mean when we say that arts works speak across time and place? 

Developing practices, acquiring knowledge, reflecting, creating, developing language to communicate ideas, exploring techniques, responding to ideas and materials before, during and after arts making and/or critiquing. 

 

Sample questions: 

  • How am I planning to communicate my message through my work?  
  • What would I like people to feel as they experience my work?  
  • What do I need to know about this material?  
  • Is there a skill I need to practise before I begin creating my work?  
  • What do I need to know about the conventions of this style or form? Am I planning to use …?  
  • What content am I planning on including in my performance?  
  • Is this all going according to plan?  
  • What alterations have I made along the way?  
  • Did someone give me an idea or some input while I was creating this work? How can I /should I acknowledge their contribution?  
  • What am I learning about this technique / process / form / material ...?  
  • Am I pleased with the outcome of my art making / performance?  
  • How does my work show my skill to others?  
  • Does my work communicate my original ideas? What changed during the process? Why did I decide to make those changes? 
  • What did I learn about … by making this work, presenting this performance …?

As they create and respond to arts works and experiences, students develop questions to explore ideas, perspectives and/or meaning. They think and make decisions as artists and as audience. Questions based on Viewpoints encourage students to consider a range of perspectives and to think deeply about their own arts works and art created by others.

Key connections
General capabilities 

 

General capabilities equip young Australians with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions to live and work successfully. General capabilities support and deepen student engagement with learning area content and are best developed within the context of learning areas.  

 

Opportunities to develop general capabilities in learning area content vary. In addition to Literacy and Numeracy which are fundamental to all learning areas, The Arts provides opportunities to connect with each of the other general capabilities. General capabilities are identified in content descriptions when they are developed or applied through Arts content. They are also identified in content elaborations when they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning. 

In The Arts, students use literacy to develop, apply and communicate their knowledge and skills as artists and as audiences. Through arts learning students enhance and extend their literacy skills as they create, compose, design, analyse, comprehend, discuss, interpret or evaluate their own and others’ arts works. Each subject in The Arts requires students to learn and use specific terminology with increasing complexity and sophistication as they move through the curriculum. Students learn that Arts terminology is dynamic and flexible, can be symbolic, is not always expressed through words and varies according to context. 

In The Arts, students select and use relevant numeracy knowledge and skills to plan, design, make, interpret, analyse and evaluate arts works. Across The Arts subjects, students recognise and use: number to calculate and estimate; spatial reasoning to solve problems involving space, patterns, symmetry, 2D shapes and 3D objects; scale and proportion to show and describe positions, pathways and movements; and measurement to explore length, area, volume, capacity, time, mass and angles. Students work with a range of numerical concepts to organise, analyse and create representations of data such as diagrams, charts, tables, graphs and motion capture, relevant to their own or others’ arts works. 

Digital Literacy can be developed in each of The Arts subjects through:  

  • experiencing arts works that are created or accessed using digital tools  
  • making arts works using available digital devices, tools or production techniques 
  • using digital tools and online or networked spaces and environments for sharing and engaging with arts works, artists and audiences 
  • using digital tools to develop skills and practice (individual and collaborative). 

Students develop critical and creative thinking as they make and respond to arts works, ideas and practices in different contexts. As artists, students develop questions, imagine, consider various options and alternatives and make decisions, acting on possibilities when interpreting and generating ideas. As audiences, students think critically and creatively about their work and the work of other artists. They reflect, analyse, critique and evaluate their thinking about arts works and the roles that The Arts play in the lives of people, cultures and communities. 

In The Arts, students develop personal and social capability as they make and respond to arts works, ideas and practices. When working with others, students develop social management skills and empathy for multiple perspectives as they communicate effectively, collaborate, make decisions that meet the needs of themselves and others, and demonstrate leadership as they create arts works. As artists and as audiences, students develop self-awareness and self-management skills when they set goals, work collaboratively, reflect upon various arts practices, and build resilience, adaptability, and perseverance while thinking about their work and the work of other artists. 

Students develop intercultural understanding as they consider the influence and impact of cultural identities and traditions on the practices and thinking of artists and audiences. As artists, students develop empathy by exploring their own cultural identities and those of others, learning to appreciate the diversity of cultures and contexts in which artists and audiences live. As audiences, students engage with arts works from diverse cultural sources, and are able to consider accepted roles, images, objects, sounds, beliefs and practices in new ways. They take opportunities to use their arts practice to respond to biases, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination.  

Students develop ethical understanding as they explore and respond to arts works that present, examine and/or challenge values, rights and responsibilities, and ethical norms. As artists students can create work that explores ethical issues or communicates a personal ethical outlook. Students may use their arts practice to help them manage context, conflict or uncertainty.  

Cross-curriculum priorities 

 

Cross-curriculum priorities support the Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts. Cross-curriculum priorities are incorporated through learning area content; they are not separate learning areas or subjects. They provide opportunities to enrich the content of the learning areas, where most appropriate and authentic, allowing students to engage with and better understand their world.  

 

Opportunities to apply cross-curriculum priorities to learning area content vary. All 3 cross-curriculum priorities are relevant to The Arts curriculum. They are embedded in content descriptions where they are core to the delivery of the content in The Arts. They are also identified in content elaborations where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning. 

Through The Arts, students learn about the central place of the arts in the oldest continuous living cultures in the world. They explore how First Nations Australians recognise and communicate connections to Country/Place through cultural expressions that draw on belief systems connected to the lands, seas, skies and waterways. 

 

Students learn about the distinctiveness and diversity of First Nations Australians’ cultural practices and expressions that represent unique ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing. They learn how First Nations Australians are using materials, forms and technologies in innovative ways to create arts works that celebrate, challenge and communicate ideas and perspectives. Students explore ways in which First Nations Australians combine movement, sound, language and visual content to tell stories and share knowledge. They learn that arts works that carry cultural knowledge are known as cultural expressions: "expressions that result from the creativity of individuals, groups and societies, and that have cultural content". UNESCO, 2017  

 

Through The Arts curriculum, students learn that First Nations Australian cultures have internationally enshrined rights to ensure that these diverse cultures can be maintained, controlled, protected and developed. They also learn about rights relating to Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and how these rights can be protected through respectful application of protocols.  

 

As they examine ways in which First Nations Australians continue to practise and revitalise their cultures, students also learn about the impact of historical and contemporary events on their cultures. Students learn about the significant and ongoing contributions of First Nations Australians to Australian identity and how these contributions are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally. Showcasing and celebrating these contributions to Australia’s cultural life allows students to engage with the voices of First Nations Australians. It also encourages collaboration with artists, creative practitioners and knowledge holders from First Nations Australian communities. 

In The Arts, students can examine arts forms and practices that reflect the rich and diverse cultures, belief systems and traditions of the Asia region. They can explore traditional, contemporary and emerging media, forms and practices, and relationships between artists and audiences across Australia and Asia. They consider the local, regional and global influence of arts and cultural practices created and experienced across the region. Students can also investigate the role of the arts in developing, maintaining and transforming cultural beliefs and practices, and communicating an understanding of the rich cultural diversity of the Asia region. They reflect on the intrinsic value of these arts works and artists’ practices as well as their place and value within contexts and communities.  

Through The Arts, students can explore how ideas and perspectives about issues such as living sustainably, equity and social justice are represented in arts works from all times and places. Engaging with these arts works and practices builds students’ ability to appreciate diverse world views and provides opportunities for them to explore the importance of the arts to cultural sustainability. As artists, students can create work individually or collaboratively to communicate their ideas about sustainable futures and/or to contribute to community action for sustainable futures. Students are encouraged to explore how artists’ practices change over time in response to, for example, ideas and the availability of materials or technological innovation. They consider how these changes contribute to the maintenance and/or revitalisation of culturally-driven arts practice. They are encouraged to consider sustainable practice when selecting and using materials and processes to create their work. 

Learning areas 

 

Each subject in The Arts provides opportunities to integrate or connect content to all other learning areas. 

The Arts and English share a focus on communicating ideas and perspectives in oral, aural, written and visual modes, with an awareness of purpose and audience. Both learning areas develop students’ speaking, listening, visual literacy and writing skills as they individually or collaboratively develop, create and share their work.

Through The Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences students explore and share stories, ideas and understandings about culture, identity and relationships. They develop respect and empathy for diverse perspectives and ways of seeing the world. As artists, students can explore ideas and perspectives relevant to the themes and issues that they encounter through Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Arts and Languages share a focus on the communication of stories, ideas, perspectives and cultures. Both learning areas help students to explore relationships between people, cultures and identities, and how these are exemplified in and through artistic and linguistic practices and behaviours.

There are similarities and connections between aspects of the Design and Technologies curriculum and each of The Arts subjects. Some connections occur through use of materials such as fabrics and fibre to create arts works and/or designed products. Other connections occur through use of design processes typically in forms such as graphic, sonic or kinaesthetic design. Technologies such as 3D printing or modelling can be used to create arts works or production elements; for example, projections/video and/or use of immersive technologies. 

 

The Digital Technologies curriculum focuses on using digital tools and systems to create solutions. In each of The Arts subjects, students can use digital tools and systems to create works in traditional and emerging forms. In The Arts, students may use skills and knowledge learnt through Digital Technologies to develop their arts practice. For example, they might use programming to create or manipulate patterns and algorithms, images, songs, text, speech/language, or movement sequences. Different digital tools give students a variety of levels of creative control. 

The Arts and Mathematics share understandings about pattern, measurement and spatial reasoning. In The Arts this knowledge is used for creating and exploring arts works. Mathematics and The Arts both give students opportunities to learn about natural and constructed environments through observation and modelling. Students can use movement, sound, language, and/or visual content in conventional and innovative arts forms to communicate mathematical understandings.

The Arts and Science each allow students to learn about, respond to and make sense of the world. As artists, students can use scientific knowledge to create arts works in conventional and innovative arts forms. Scientists and artists work collaboratively to communicate scientific understandings. 

The Arts and Health and Physical Education both allow students to develop self-awareness and explore personal and social identities and relationships. The 2 learning areas encourage lifelong participation through engagement, and taking action across communities and environments. Students’ movement capabilities are developed through Dance, Drama, Music and Health and Physical Education.

Resources

Curriculum documents including understanding the learning area, curriculum content in F–6 and 7-10, a scope and sequence representation, the glossary, and comparative information about Version 8.4 and Version 9 are available on the download page. 

 

Support resource exploring examples of knowledge and skills in The Arts 

 

There is a support resource providing examples of knowledge and skills in The Arts to assist teachers to unpack the curriculum. This resource includes examples of Viewpoint questions to ask, and a sequence for the introduction and development of knowledge and skills in each Arts subject. These documents are available on the download page. 

Learning area downloads

Dance

Rationale

Dance is expressive movement with purpose and form that communicates ideas and stories of personal and cultural identity through the body. Early sensory experience of the body and movement through dance is fundamental to the development of kinaesthetic knowledge and contributes to students’ foundational aesthetic understanding. In Dance, using the body as the instrument of expression and movement as the medium, students represent, celebrate, question and communicate personal, social, emotional, spiritual and physical human experience. 

 

Like all art forms, dance has the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and motivating students to reach their creative and expressive potential. Dance encourages students to develop a movement vocabulary with which to explore and refine imaginative ways of moving. Digital tools enhance access to learning experiences for choreography, performance and responding. 

 

Dance is a central element in the diversity and continuity of local and global cultures, particularly the cultures of First Nations Australians. Through dance, First Nations Australians express connection to, and responsibility for, Country/Place and challenge the impact of other cultures on their ways of knowing, being, doing and becoming.  

 

In Dance, students individually and collaboratively choreograph, rehearse, perform and respond as they engage with dance practice and practitioners in their own and others’ cultures and communities. Students use the elements of dance to explore and practise choreographic, technical and expressive skills for choreography and performance. Through these practices, students examine dance from diverse viewpoints to build their knowledge and understanding of dance, movement and the body. They respond to their own and others’ dances using physical and verbal communication to recognise and represent ideas, thoughts and feelings. Active participation as dancers, choreographers and audiences promotes positive artistic, creative, cognitive, aesthetic and cultural benefits that can impact students’ lifelong health, wellbeing and social inclusion. 

Aims

Dance aims to develop students’: 

  • body awareness and technical and expressive skills to communicate through movement confidently, creatively and intelligently  
  • choreographic and performance skills, and skills for responding to their own and others’ dances  
  • aesthetic, artistic and cultural understanding of dance in past and contemporary contexts as choreographers, performers and audiences  
  • respect for and knowledge of the diverse purposes, traditions, histories and cultures of dance as active participants and informed audiences. 
Structure

Dance is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation presented as a single year.  

 

Curriculum content is organised under 4 interrelated strands: 

  • Exploring and responding 
  • Developing practices and skills 
  • Creating and making 
  • Presenting and performing. 
Figure 1: The Arts – Dance content structure 

In this strand, students learn as choreographers and performers and as audience. They explore: 

  • dance and contexts for dance in the lives of individuals and groups across cultures, times, places and communities  
  • the diversity of how, where and why people choreograph, perform, present and respond to dance  
  • the diversity and significance of dance for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • how dance communicates cultural and aesthetic knowledge, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • how dance develops empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives. 

They respond using dance practices and forms, imagery, sounds, movement, language and/or digital tools.  

This strand is about developing practices and skills for choreographing, performing and responding to dance. Students develop knowledge and understanding through play, imagination, experimentation, and creative and critical thinking. They learn and apply safe dance practice, using their bodies and, as appropriate, digital tools, to develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative skills and confidence for choreographing and performing dance, using the elements of dance, fundamental movement skills, choreographic devices, technical and expressive skills, style- or genre-specific techniques (in Years 7–10) and, as appropriate, available production elements and/or digital tools 
  • critical skills for observing, reflecting on, analysing, evaluating and responding to their own and others’ dance practices using language/terminology and/or embodied practices.

In this strand, as artists, students apply dance and multi-arts creative processes to choreograph dance. As audience, they reflect on their work as it develops; for example, through observation, analysis, reflection and evaluation. 

 

Students individually and/or collaboratively use their bodies, the elements of dance, choreographic devices, processes such as improvisation and/or digital tools to:  

  • choreograph dances in forms and styles of interest and relevance 
  • interpret, arrange and re-imagine dance choreographed by others. 

In this strand, students perform dance they have choreographed and/or their interpretations of dance choreographed by other people, in informal and/or formal settings and in available physical or virtual spaces. Some performances will be refined; others will be presentations/demonstrations of work-in-progress. Students:

  • plan, select, design and/or rehearse their presentations and performances
  • use technical and expressive skills and, in Years 7–10, genre- or style-specific techniques to engage audiences and communicate intentions.
Key considerations
Elements of Dance  

 

The elements of dance – time, space, dynamics and relationships – work together and underpin all dance activity.  

 

Dance practices: choreography, performance and responding   

 

In Dance, students learn through the integrated practices of choreography, performance and responding. 

 

Choreography is the creative process for making dance. Students, as artists, explore and shape their ideas using processes such as improvising, exploring, reimagining, selecting, and/or structuring movement to communicate their intentions. As audience, students use reflective practice to evaluate and refine their work.  

 

Performing involves practising, rehearsing, refining and applying technical and expressive skills and/or genre-/style-specific techniques. As audience, students use reflective practice to evaluate and refine their work.  

 

Students respond to dance they experience as audience and as artist. As audience students explore and respond to dance and dance practices from across cultures, times and places. As artist they consider and evaluate influences of the dance they have experienced on their choreography and performance. As they respond, students can use questions based on Viewpoints to:  

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting  
  • explore ideas and make decisions  
  • value multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meanings  
  • think deeply about their own dance practices and dance choreographed and performed by others.  

Safe dance practice encourages and promotes physical health and emotional wellbeing. It includes physical and psychological dimensions and should be applied at all times in dance learning. 

 

Materials 

 

Movement is the essential material of dance. Movement begins with the body and body awareness, including the use of body bases, body parts and body zones. The body uses movement vocabulary developed by using the elements of dance to express and give form to feelings and ideas in choreography and performance. Production components such as performance spaces, costumes, props, lighting, sets, sound and multimedia elements may be incorporated in dance.  

 

Through dance learning students develop their skills for performing movement in safe and meaningful ways. They learn and develop fundamental movement skills; acquire, use and combine technical and expressive skills; and, particularly in Years 7–10, learn genre-/style-based techniques to build their movement vocabulary.  

 

Types of dance 

 

Students explore dance from a range of cultures, times and places. They explore, choreograph and perform dances in diverse genres, styles and/or forms that are representative of the 3 main types of dance:  

  • dance created/choreographed to be performed to an audience (for example, forms of theatrical dance such as ballet, tap; exhibition dance such as ballroom or traditional dance; local dance traditions, storytelling dance, dances that depict traditional practices or stories, folk dance; and dance choreographed for screen-based works such as films or games) 
  • participatory dance for personal and social purposes and not intended for a broader audience (for example, dance for exercise, social dance crazes)   
  • dance performed or participated in for a specific purpose such as spiritual devotion or ceremonial rites (for example, dance in traditional celebrations or festivals or as part of a cultural ceremony such as a wedding).   

Across F–10 students broaden their experiences of dance genres and styles and use these as a springboard for their own choreography and performance. They also consider how dance can communicate and challenge ideas about issues and concepts, such as themes and ideas relevant to the cross-curriculum priorities or other learning areas.

Drama

Rationale

Drama uniquely explores and communicates the human condition through the enactment of real and imagined worlds. Drama responds to our need to share and enact stories, and create and make meaning across cultures, times, places and communities.   

 

Drama is directly linked to play, the root of all creativity in children. At its core, drama is about taking on roles and “standing in the shoes” of another, and imagining and communicating with the world through different perspectives. Taking on roles involves an act of the imagination that relies on a learner’s ability to empathise and understand others. Actively taking on roles in a range of contexts, situations, and across different times and places fosters students’ development of personal, cultural and social understandings as they imagine, empathise and communicate through deep experiential learning. Drama is a powerful form of communication involving affective, sensory and aesthetic modes.  

 

In Drama, students work individually and collaboratively as artists and audiences to create, perform and respond to drama. It is an active, embodied and aesthetically rich subject that engages students cognitively and affectively as they learn in, through and about drama. 

 

Drama is central to the diversity and continuity of local and global cultures, particularly the cultures of First Nations Australians. Through drama, First Nations Australians celebrate and express connection to and responsibility for Country/Place.   

 

Drama uniquely develops a suite of knowledge and understanding, and capabilities including creativity, imagination, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, empathy, agility, confidence and expression. Drama learning involves a range of processes including devising, writing, rehearsing, presenting, performing, analysing and evaluating. Drama is accessible to all and engages students as they learn about themselves, their peers and the world. 

Aims

Drama aims to develop students’: 

  • confidence and self-esteem to explore, depict and celebrate human experience, take risks and challenge their own creativity through drama 
  • knowledge and understanding in controlling, applying and analysing the elements, processes, forms, styles and techniques of drama to engage audiences and create meaning 
  • sense of curiosity, aesthetic knowledge, enjoyment and achievement through exploring and playing roles, and imagining situations, actions and ideas as drama makers and audiences 
  • knowledge and understanding of traditional and contemporary drama as critical and active participants and audiences. 
Structure

Drama is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation being presented as a single year.  

 

Curriculum content is organised under 4 interrelated strands: 

  • Exploring and responding 
  • Developing practices and skills 
  • Creating and making 
  • Presenting and performing.
Figure 2: The Arts – Drama content structure

In this strand, students learn as artists and as audience. They explore: 

  • drama works and contexts for drama in the lives of individuals and groups across cultures, times, places and communities 
  • the diversity of how, where and why people create, perform, and respond to drama  
  • the diversity and significance of drama for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • how drama communicates cultural and aesthetic knowledge, ideas, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • how drama develops empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives. 

They respond using drama practices and forms, imagery, sounds, movement, language and/or digital tools.  

This strand is about developing practices and skills for creating, performing and responding to drama. Students develop knowledge, skills and understanding of these practices through play, imagination,  experimentation,  and creative and critical thinking. They work individually and collaboratively to develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative practices, skills and confidence for imagining, improvising, devising, interpreting and performing drama, using the elements of drama, conventions associated with styles/forms, processes for making drama, and available materials and technologies including digital tools 
  • critical practices for observing, reflecting on, analysing, evaluating and responding to their own and others’ drama and drama practices, using language/terminology and/or embodied practices. 

In this strand, as artists, students apply drama and/or multi-arts creative processes. As audience, they reflect on their work as it develops; for example, through observation, analysis, reflection and evaluation. Students create and make: 

  • drama in a range of improvised, devised and scripted forms and styles, individually or collaboratively 
  • work that is refined and realised, and other work that may not be resolved  
  • interpretations of scripted drama or texts. 

In Drama, creating and making can include improvising, devising, playing, acting, interpreting, directing, rehearsing and/or scripting. 

In this strand, students use acting and, as appropriate, take on creative and/or technical design/production roles to share drama and ideas with audiences, using available materials and technologies. They: 

  • share informal and/or formal performances of their work in available spaces  
  • plan, select, design and/or rehearse their performances.  
Key considerations
Elements of drama  

 

The elements of drama are the foundational building blocks of all drama and can include role, situation, language, place, movement, time, character, relationships, voice, tension, space, mood/atmosphere, contrast, symbol and focus. The elements of drama work dynamically together to create dramatic action and dramatic meaning. Other elements of drama may be included, particularly at Years 9–10; for example, to align with senior secondary courses. 

 

Drama practices: creating, performing and responding 

 

Students learn drama knowledge, skills and processes through creating, performing and responding to drama. 

 

In their drama, students develop their understanding of processes including dramatic playing, role-playing, improvising, process drama, interpreting scripts, rehearsing and directing, and responding to drama as audience. As students progress, particularly in Years 7–10, they develop performance skills and engage with specific processes of drama practice such as acting, directing, scriptwriting, dramaturgy, designing, producing, managing and critical analysis. 

 

Throughout their drama learning students use questions based on Viewpoints as an inquiry tool for considering their drama practice from multiple perspectives, as artist or as audience. Students can use questions based on Viewpoints to:  

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting  
  • explore ideas and make decisions  
  • explore and develop empathy for multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meanings  
  • think deeply about their own drama practices and drama created and/or performed by others that they experience. 
Forms and styles 

 

Drama form is the way drama is structured. Students learn in and through improvised, devised and scripted forms. Drama forms are shaped by the application of the elements of drama within particular contexts or for particular purposes. Conventions are associated with different forms.  

 

Drama styles are categories in which dramatic action is expressed or performed. Each drama style has distinctive characteristics that can be influenced by particular time periods, countries or culture, ideological or social movements or particular theatre makers. Each style has a set of drama conventions that can be identified, used and manipulated. 

 

In each band, students create, perform and respond to drama from a range of forms and styles, across a range of contexts or for particular purposes. 

 

Materials and technologies 

 

The materials for Drama begin with the body and voice. Students use, apply and manipulate the elements of drama to create and perform drama. Production components such as performance spaces, costumes, props, lighting, sets, sound and multimedia elements may also be incorporated in drama. 

 

In Drama, materials enable: 

  • creation of setting/s for dramatic play; for example, use of open-ended materials such as buttons, recycled materials, string/cord, lengths of paper, and large and small-sized boxes to create a space-station or another imagined space 
  • communication of place; for example, using a length of material to represent a river  
  • communication of role through use of a costume item or a prop 
  • symbolism and relationships; for example, use of red fabric or rostra blocks of various heights to indicate power and/or status 
  • transformation; for example, using calico cloth to indicate a baby and then transforming it into a picnic blanket or a shawl within the same performance 
  • communication of time and time-shifts; for example, using props and costumes to indicate the period of the performance. 

In Drama, technologies enable: 

  • on-screen viewing of live or recorded drama from diverse cultures, times and places to broaden awareness of the possibilities of drama as an art form or to support processes of analysis (for example) 
  • stimulus prior to improvising, devising and/or developing drama using screen-based styles, such as cinematic theatre  
  • collaborative practices such as scriptwriting, planning drama or character development  
  • reflection, evaluation or refinement of “work in progress”; for example, using video of a rehearsal to consider refinements and next steps  
  • use of available devices to support reflection and responding; for example, capturing freeze frames and asking students (as audience) to reflect on whether or not the intended meaning is being communicated through the dramatic action  
  • use of projections (text or still/moving image) to contribute to or juxtapose with live action to enhance dramatic meaning, and use of lighting (including torches or hand-held LED lights) and recorded sound to create and/or manipulate mood/atmosphere.

Media Arts

Rationale

In Media Arts, communication, storytelling and persuasion are used to connect audiences, purposes and ideas. Media Arts explores concepts and viewpoints, and examines, interprets and analyses media practices that represent the world from diverse perspectives. Media artists work collaboratively and use traditional and emerging media technologies and creative processes to plan, produce and distribute media arts works.  

 

Through the creative use of materials and technologies to convey meaning, students manipulate still and moving images, text, sound and interactive elements. They construct representations and communicate or challenge understandings, ideas and positions.  

 

Media arts plays an important role in sustaining cultural diversity and continuing local and global cultures, particularly the cultures of First Nations Australians. It offers opportunities to use media platforms to celebrate, maintain or revitalise ways of knowing, being, doing, belonging and becoming. Through media arts, First Nations Australians celebrate and express connection to and responsibility for Country/Place. 

 

Media arts recognises that media forms can operate at either a mass level, where media is shared one way, or at an interpersonal level, where communication occurs between individuals and among online communities. Students critically reflect on the role of the media in society and consider how their own media use is shaped by the practices of media institutions. They develop awareness and understanding of ways that media institutions use information collected from users to create communities and to mediate users’ media choices. 

 

Students learn to be critically aware of the ways that media is used culturally, how it might be negotiated by different audiences, and the impact it can have on their own understanding of the world. 

Aims

Media Arts aims to develop students’: 

  • enjoyment and confidence to participate in, experiment with and interpret the media-rich culture and communications practices that surround them 
  • creative and critical thinking skills through engagement as producers and consumers of media 
  • aesthetic knowledge and a sense of curiosity and discovery as they explore images, text and sound to express ideas, concepts and stories for different audiences
  • knowledge and understanding of their active participation in existing and evolving local and global media cultures.
Structure

Media Arts is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation presented as a single year.  

 

Curriculum content is organised under 4 interrelated strands: 

  • Exploring and responding 
  • Developing practices and skills 
  • Creating and making 
  • Presenting and performing. 
Figure 2: The Arts – Media Arts content structure

In this strand, students learn as artists and as audiences. They explore: 

  • media arts works and media contexts in the lives of individuals and groups across cultures, times, places and communities 
  • the diversity of how, where and why people create, make, distribute and respond to media arts works  
  • the diversity and significance of media arts for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • how media arts works communicate cultural and aesthetic knowledge, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • how media arts develops empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives. 

They respond using media arts practices and forms, images, sounds, movement, language and/or digital tools.  

This strand is about developing practices and skills for producing and responding to media arts. Students develop skills through play, experimentation and creative and critical thinking. They develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative skills and confidence to imagine, use and manipulate visual, aural and interactive elements, media languages and technologies to create representations that communicate stories, narratives, ideas and meaning 
  • safe and ethical use of production processes using available resources 
  • critical skills in observing, reflecting, analysing and evaluating their own and others’ media arts practices, using language/terminology and embodied practices. 

In this strand, as artists, students apply media arts and/or multi-arts production processes. As audience, they reflect on their work as it develops; for example, through observation, analysis, reflection, evaluation and considering the relationships their work creates with audiences. 

 

Students use media arts concepts and production processes to construct representations and produce media arts works in a range of forms, styles and/or genres. 

In this strand, students share (exhibit/screen/publish/distribute) their media arts work using available spaces and resources. Students may also work collaboratively to produce multi-arts works. Students: 

  • share their work using available spaces, materials and technologies 
  • plan and design their presentations, considering audiences and institutional practices 
  • observe and, as appropriate, participate in interactions between media arts works and audiences. 
Key considerations
Media Arts concepts 

 

There are 6 concepts fundamental to Media Arts. They are: media technologies, representations, audiences, institutions, media languages and relationships. Together, the media arts concepts provide a framework for students to engage with and create media arts works in existing or emerging forms and to consider media arts practices.  

 

Throughout their Media Arts learning students use questions based on Viewpoints as an inquiry tool for considering their own and others’ use of media arts concepts from multiple perspectives. Students can use questions based on Viewpoints to:  

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting  
  • explore ideas and make decisions  
  • explore and develop empathy for multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meaning  
  • think deeply about their own media arts practices and media arts works by others that they experience. 

The media arts concepts, although discussed independently, are interrelated. Students engage with each of the concepts at varying levels of depth in all bands.

Media technologies are integral to media arts practices. Students:   

  • use a range of available digital (hardware, software, recording devices, etc.) and non-digital (pencils, paper, instruments, props, etc.) tools as they create and respond 
  • produce media arts works using available technology and reflect on how the technology they use enables or constrains the choices available in the making of their media arts work 
  • reflect critically on developments across media technologies and consider responsible/ethical media practices and how media arts are used for diverse purposes across cultures, communities, times and places.

Representations are present in all media arts works. All media arts works are constructed and media artists build representations of people, places, concepts/themes and/or events. Students:  

  • examine the construction of representations in media artworks and build their own 
  • reflect critically on the impact of repeated representations and how they change over time and across contexts
  • consider the ways people learn with and from others through values and attitudes embedded in representations in media arts works.

A consideration of audience is a critical aspect of Media Arts practice. Students:  

  • consider the audience/s that media arts works are made for (target audience), how audiences might interpret the work and differences in interpretations across audiences; for example, media arts works, including their own work, may be interpreted in different ways by different audiences 
  • examine how audiences come together or take polarised positions; for example, as fans of popular culture, and the practices involved in belonging to such groups. 

Media institutions include broadcasting companies, print and digital newspaper and magazine publishers, film/screen and music production companies and other production/publishing companies. Media institutions can be local, national or global and owned/controlled by individuals, corporations or governments. The diversity of media institutions is evolving and dynamic. Students: 

  • explore how individuals, communities, organisations and institutions engage in practices that influence media production for economic, political or social gain; for example, the roles institutions play in engaging audiences, manipulating audience behaviour; how new media trends are promoted, such as ways individuals can share “news” or become “the news”  
  • investigate how media arts works are distributed (shared with audiences). For example, they explore differences in the ways that distribution happens via channels such as cinemas or television compared to distribution via online spaces, and they consider issues such as ownership, privacy and economic benefit (who earns money, merchandising, payment for access etc.)
  • consider their own engagement with media and explore responsible media practice/ethical implications of their practices and ways they are influenced by media institutions.

Media languages include the still and/or moving images, sounds, texts and/or interactive elements used to tell a story. Meaning is created through the use of: 

  • technical codes which are often connected to the capabilities/functions of equipment or digital tools such as cameras or software. They can include, for example, shot size and angles, camera movements, editing techniques, music and sound effects and/or lighting 
  • symbolic codes which are used to suggest or imply meaning to an audience through a shared social or cultural understanding. These are conveyed through what is seen and heard, including, for example, locations, settings, costumes and/or use of colour 
  • conventions which are the shared understandings that help to build stories. Story principles contain conventions of narrative; for example, narrative structure and character development. Genre conventions are the established techniques for constructing a type of story; for example, drama, comedy, horror or western. 

Students make informed choices about how they can combine and shape the use of codes and conventions in their media arts works to communicate ideas, perspectives and/or meaning to audiences. 

Relationships are embedded in all media arts practices. In Media Arts students explore and reflect on: 

  • relationships created within media forms; for example, fan groups or online communities  
  • the ways people learn with and from others through the media  
  • their own motivations and the relationships they hope to build; for example, relationships they hope to build with audiences  
  • how online and mobile platforms are developing and the impacts this is having on production and distribution practices, and how they construct their relationships with users to engage them on platforms 
  • relationships they develop with various media forms as audience; for example, they consider the relationships they establish and maintain through online and mobile platforms and develop their understanding of relationships between producer, time, place and audience.
Media Arts forms 

 

Media arts works use a diverse range of print, moving image, audio and hybrid/trans-disciplinary forms. Forms are often specific to styles or genres; for example, action films or hobby magazines, and they continue to evolve in response to technological and other developments. 

 

Production processes 

 

In the media arts, production processes include 3 key stages during the creation of media arts works.  

  • Pre-production: for example, planning, developing ideas, investigation/research, considering techniques they will use to ensure the media arts work will engage the intended audience and making choices about the form, intention, genre and/or style of the work 
  • Production: for example, using digital tools and/or other equipment to create/capture images, sound and text that will be used in the media arts work 
  • Post-production: for example, editing, reviewing/reflecting and refining to ensure that the work communicates planned intentions, distribution and/or interactions with audience/s.   

Other stages in a production process such as development and/or distribution may be considered, particularly in Years 7–10 as appropriate.  

Music

Rationale

Music’s raw material is sound. In music, sounds are combined and shaped into a meaningful form. Music exists distinctively in every historical and contemporary culture, and is a basic, shared expression and communication of human experience. Sharing music and ideas about music across cultures, times, places and communities builds knowledge and enhances empathy. Engagement with music from diverse settings develops an understanding that the same music can be deeply moving for many people and yet have different meaning for each. 

 

Music has the capacity to motivate, inspire and enrich the lives of all students. Students participate in music learning individually and collectively as listeners, composers and performers. Music learning is embodied learning. It has a significant and unique impact on the creative, sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional, sociocultural and personal competencies of students. 

 

Music is a significant element in the diversity and continuity of local and global cultures, particularly the cultures of First Nations Australians. Through music, First Nations Australians express connection to Country/Place, challenge the impact of other cultures on their ways of knowing, being, doing and becoming, contribute to the global music community, and advocate for change.  

 

Students’ active participation in music, through continuous and developmentally sequential music learning, encourages skills and aesthetic knowledge of increasing depth and complexity over time. Practical engagement with music develops capabilities that can be gained in no other way. 

 

As independent and collaborative learners, students integrate listening, composing and performing activities, using established and emerging technologies. Music learning enhances students’ capacity to perceive and understand musical concepts, and to recognise music’s contribution in shaping their identity and their ability to explore personal, local and global issues and ideas. Through the study of music, students increasingly value the power of music in its ability to transform the heart, soul, mind and spirit of individuals and communities. 

Aims

Music aims to develop students’: 

  • confidence to be creative, innovative, thoughtful, skilful and informed musicians 
  • knowledge and skills for listening with intent and purpose, composing and performing  
  • aesthetic knowledge and respect for music and music practices across global communities, cultures and musical traditions 
  • understanding of music as an aural art form as they acquire skills to become independent music learners. 
Structure

Music is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation presented as a single year.  

 

Curriculum content is organised under 4 interrelated strands: 

  • Exploring and responding 
  • Developing practices and skills 
  • Creating and making 
  • Presenting and performing. 
Figure 2: The Arts – Music content structure  

In this strand, students learn as listeners, composers and performers. They explore: 

  • diverse examples of how, where and why people create, make, perform, present and respond to music  
  • music and contexts/roles for music in the lives of individuals and groups across cultures, times, places and communities 
  • the diversity and significance of music for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • how music communicates cultural and aesthetic knowledge, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • how music develops empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives.  

They respond using music practices and forms, imagery, sounds, movement, language and/or digital tools.  

Students develop practices and skills for listening to, composing, performing and responding to music. They develop knowledge and understanding through play, imagination, experimentation, creative and critical thinking, and practice. They use their voices, instruments, safe practice principles and guidelines, materials such as scores, sheet music, amplification equipment and, as appropriate, digital tools, to develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative skills and confidence for interpreting, performing and composing music, using the elements of music, listening and aural skills, vocal and instrumental techniques, and available materials/digital tools 
  • critical skills for listening to, observing, reflecting on, analysing and evaluating their own and others’ music practices, using language/terminology and embodied practices. 

In this strand, as artists, students apply music-specific or multi-arts creative processes to compose music and to interpret music for performance. As audiences, they reflect on their work as it develops; for example, through observation, using aural skills, analysis, reflection and evaluation. 

 

Students individually and/or collaboratively, using available voices, instruments (acoustic, electric, digital and/or environmental) and/or digital tools: 

  • compose in forms and styles of interest and relevance such as songwriting, improvisation, genre-specific forms such as chamber music, music production, arranging/re-imagining, music for specific purposes or occasions, or music for multi-arts works 
  • interpret music composed and/or performed by others 
  • use manual and/or digital tools to notate, document and/or record their compositions and/or interpretations.

In this strand, students perform their compositions and interpretations of music composed by other people in informal and/or formal settings in available physical or virtual spaces. Some performances will be refined; others will be presentations/demonstrations of work-in-progress. Students: 

  • plan, select, design and rehearse their presentations and performances  
  • use technical skills and manipulate expressive elements of music to engage audiences and communicate intentions.  
Key considerations
Elements of music

 

The elements of music – duration/time (including beat and rhythm), pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture – underpin all music learning.  

 

Musical ideas are conceived, organised and shaped by aspects and combinations of the elements of music. Other elements of music may be included, particularly at Years 9–10; for example, to align with senior secondary courses.  

 

Music practices: Listening 

 

Throughout their music learning, students listen to/experience, analyse, evaluate, perform and compose music from diverse cultures, styles, traditions and contexts. They learn to recognise their subjective preferences and appreciate other people’s diverse perspectives of music. These experiences inform students’ approaches to composing and interpreting music as performers and their responses to music they experience. As they develop their music knowledge and skills, students develop their own musical voice as composers and their own style as performers. 

 

Purposeful or active listening skills engage the listener’s mind, senses and emotions. They are used when listening for enjoyment, analysing, responding to, reflecting on, evaluating, composing and/or performing music. Aural skills are listening skills used to identify and/or analyse specific elements of music, such as the duration of a note, the interval (distance) between 2 notes or the structure/quality of a chord. Aural skills complement purposeful or active listening and can be used when listening, composing and/or performing.  

 

Music practices: Composing 

 

Composing describes the practices and processes used to create music works. It can include, for example, songwriting, improvising, arranging/re-imagining/re-inventing, music production, and/or generating. Composing involves creative processes such as developing ideas/intentions or identifying purpose, evaluating/analysing ideas from other music, manipulating elements of music to organise and shape music ideas and/or using compositional devices; for example, to structure or extend the music.  

 

Notating, documenting and/or recording  

 

Notating, documenting and/or recording involves using available and relevant methods and tools to preserve music for future use. Forms and methods of notating, documenting and/or recording include staff notation, graphic notation, scores, charts, lead-sheets, audio and/or audio-visual recordings. These forms and methods are often associated with genres/styles. Notating, documenting and/or recording can involve using symbols, images and/or use of digital tools. 

 

Music practices: Performing 

 

Students perform for audiences (of one or more) in informal settings such as in classes or lessons, to peers or teachers. They may also present formal performances in a school or public setting. Formats for performances include live (indoor/outdoor), streamed and/or recorded.   

 

Instruments 

 

Students use available instruments for performing and composing. Instruments can include voice/body, acoustic or electric string, wind, percussion, or keyboard instruments, digital instruments and/or environmental sounds.  

 

Responding 

 

In music, students respond to musical experiences and ideas through the practices of listening, composing and performing. They use questions based on Viewpoints as an inquiry tool for considering their responses and music practice from multiple perspectives, as artist or as audience. Students can use questions based on Viewpoints to:  

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting  
  • explore ideas and make decisions  
  • explore and develop empathy for multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meaning  
  • think deeply about their own music practices and works and music composed and performed by others that they experience. 

Visual Arts

Rationale

Visual arts contribute to the fields of art, craft and design. Learning in, through and about these fields, students engage critically using creative processes and artistic practices to communicate and make meaning.  

 

Visual arts processes and practices provide insights into the impacts culture can have on ways of knowing, doing and being in Australia and the world. Investigating these impacts is integral for fostering students’ ability to discern and understand the unique ways visual arts practice and process can be both related and distinct to learning about culture.  

 

Visual arts are central to the diverse and continuing cultural practices of First Nations Australians. Through visual arts, First Nations Australian artists articulate and express connection to, and responsibility for, Country/Place.  

 

Learning about visual techniques, technologies, skills and media of First Nations Australian and local and global artists, craftspeople and designers supports students to develop their own artworks with integrity and understanding of distinctions between art and culture. Students explore different perspectives to develop and expand perceptual, conceptual and cultural understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills. From this, students develop confident and proficient practices to achieve a personally responsive and distinctive visual aesthetic. 

 

Students understand how creative industries contribute to personal, cultural, community and economic wellbeing. In Visual Arts, students learn to recognise and cultivate unique literacies, practices and processes to grapple with ideas, intricacies and dilemmas. The interrelationship between making and responding invites students to investigate, contextualise and make meaningful connections between personal and global viewpoints as they apply visual arts knowledge, frameworks and practical skills.  

 

Investigating artworks and practices prepares students to respectfully recognise, articulate and acknowledge artistic and cultural influences. In exploring how, why, where and for whom artists, craftspeople and designers produce artworks, students recognise and appreciate the tensions, complexities and significance of visual arts histories, theories and practices.

Aims

Visual Arts aims to develop students’: 

  • conceptual and perceptual ideas and representations through design and inquiry processes 
  • knowledge and skills in using visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials 
  • critical and creative thinking skills through engagement with and development of visual arts practice  
  • respect for and acknowledgement of the diverse roles, innovations, traditions, histories and cultures of artists, craftspeople and designers; visual arts as social and cultural practices; and industry as artists and audiences 
  • confidence, curiosity, imagination and enjoyment 
  • personal expression through engagement with visual arts practice and ways of representing and communicating. 
Structure

Visual Arts is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 1 to Year 10, with Foundation presented as a single year.  

 

Curriculum content is organised under 4 interrelated strands: 

  • Exploring and responding 
  • Developing practices and skills 
  • Creating and making 
  • Presenting and performing. 
Figure 2: The Arts – Visual Arts content structure 

In this strand students learn as artists and as audience. They explore: 

  • visual arts practices in community, studio and/or industry settings across local, regional, national and global contexts 
  • visual artworks and their display in physical and virtual, formal and/or informal settings 
  • the diversity of where, why and how people create, make and engage with visual arts  
  • the diversity and significance of visual arts for First Nations Australian Peoples, cultures and communities 
  • how visual arts communicate cultural and aesthetic knowledge, ideas, purpose, meaning and emotion  
  • how visual arts develop empathy and understanding of multiple perspectives. 

They respond using visual arts practices, materials and forms, imagery, sounds, movement, language and/or digital tools.  

This strand is about developing practices and skills for exploring, creating and responding to visual arts. Students develop knowledge and understanding through play, imagination, experimentation, and creative and critical thinking. They develop creative and critical practices including: 

  • creative skills and confidence for using, experimenting with and manipulating visual conventions, visual arts process and materials for personal expression, and communicating visually in diverse 2D, 3D and/or 4D (time-based) visual arts forms and styles 
  • critical skills in observing, documenting, problem-solving, reflecting on, analysing and evaluating their own and others’ visual arts practices using language/terminology and/or embodied practices. 

In this strand, as artists, students use visual conventions, visual arts–specific and/or multi-arts creative processes, and visual arts materials. As audiences, they reflect on their work as it develops; for example, through observation, analysis, reflection and evaluation. Students create and make visual artworks by: 

  • selecting, refining and resolving ideas and intentions for visual artworks 
  • identifying ideas and influences that will inform their work from, for example, other artists’ artworks and practices, experiences, themes or concepts   
  • selecting and manipulating visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials to represent ideas, perspectives and/or meaning. 

In this strand, students present visual artworks to audiences. They make decisions about: 

  • if, when and how their visual artworks and/or visual arts practices will be shared with others 
  • where the work could be displayed or exhibited; for example, in formal, informal, physical or virtual spaces.   
Key considerations
Artists 

 

Artists include visual artists, craftspeople and designers.  

 

Artists work individually and collaboratively using diverse visual arts practices to create artworks. Students investigate the practice and artworks of artists working in diverse forms across cultures, contexts, times and places. Students learn as artists as they develop their own visual arts practice. 

 
Artworks 

 

Visual artworks include art, craft works and/or design works. 

 

An artwork is an outcome of an artist’s practice. An artwork may be a completed product or a work in progress. Artworks can be experienced in person and/or digitally; for example, by visiting galleries, exhibition spaces or public places, or by accessing artworks in online gallery spaces or in printed media such as arts journals. Students may use strategies such as questions based on Viewpoints, frames, frameworks or lenses to analyse and interpret artworks and artists’ practices from multiple perspectives. 

 

Visual Arts practices 

 

Visual arts practices are the ways that artists go about their work. Visual arts practices include:  

  • examining other artists’ works and practices; for example, identifying and analysing influences or considering how artists are using and adapting arts processes  
  • developing creative and critical thinking when observing and analysing artists’ works, and when documenting and reflecting on their own visual arts practice 
  • developing ideas, studio practice and collaboration 
  • experimenting with and developing knowledge and skills in using visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials 
  • creating artworks that represent ideas, perspectives and/or meaning 
  • considering where, how and why they share their artworks and ideas with audiences. 

Throughout their Visual Arts learning, students use questions based on Viewpoints as an inquiry tool for considering their visual arts practice from multiple perspectives, as artist or as audience. Students can use questions based on Viewpoints to:  

  • frame wondering, reasoning and reflecting  
  • explore ideas and make decisions  
  • explore and develop empathy for multiple perspectives  
  • express and celebrate identities, ideas and meaning  
  • think deeply about their own visual arts practices and visual artworks created by others that they experience. 
Materials 

 

In Visual Arts, students manipulate and adapt a wide range of materials and technologies to make 2D, 3D and 4D works. These may include:  

  • physical materials such as paint, dyes, charcoal and/or clay 
  • contemporary or emerging materials such as digital media 
  • organic and/or recycled/repurposed materials such as dry leaves, recycled cardboard or plastic, fabric/textiles or household objects. 

Visual artists adapt and expand their practice to encompass and embrace new materials and ways of working. 

 

Visual conventions 

 

Visual conventions are traditional, cultural and/or stylistic ways of working in visual arts, craft and design. They reflect agreed expectations for various art forms such as painting or sculpture and are impacted by factors such as the time and culture they were created in and the choice of materials. They include the elements and principles of art/design. Visual conventions are dynamic and evolve as visual art forms and practices evolve over time. 

 

Visual Arts forms 

 

Visual arts forms embrace traditional, cultural and/or stylistic forms. Forms used in visual arts learning may include but are not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, mixed media, textiles, photography and installation in one, 2, 3 and 4 dimensions. Visual arts forms develop and evolve as artists adapt and explore new technologies and ways of working. 

 

Visual Arts processes 

 

Visual arts processes are the processes used to create artworks. They include methods, tools, techniques and technologies relevant to the selected visual arts form and are continually evolving.  

 

Exhibiting and curating 

 

Exhibitions/displays of artworks are the display of work for audiences and can be formal or informal.  

 

Curating refers to the process of selecting and organising material, such as artworks and aspects of artists’ practice that communicates the artists’ processes, ideas, intentions and/or perspectives. Curating can be part of the process for preparing for informal or formal exhibiting.