The National Visual Arts Standards are part of the National Core Arts Standards, which were launched in 2014.
Throughout the United States, each State Department of Education creates policy and sets education standards to provide guidelines and expectations for what students should know and be able to do throughout k-12 schooling in their state. While public schools are required to meet local and state standards, national standards are voluntary and used by some states to inform the development of their own state standards; other states adopt the national standards as their state standards. To know if your state has standards for visual arts, go to ArtScan.
Visual Arts, as defined by the National Art Education Association, include the traditional fine arts such as drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture; media arts including film, graphic communications, animation, and emerging technologies; architectural, environmental, and industrial arts such as urban, interior, product, and landscape design; folk arts; and works of art such as ceramics, fibers, jewelry, works in wood, paper, and other materials.
Yes. There are voluntary national standards for visual arts, dance, music, theater and media arts. First developed in 1994, a new generation of standards was released in 2014. NAEA believes that all students deserve access to art education taught by art educators who are accountable to students, families and stakeholders in their community. View NAEA’s Vision Statement
The national visual arts standards were created by visual arts educators working with colleagues across the field of arts education to create standards for each arts education discipline. The national media arts standards were created by arts educators from across the field of arts education with representation from visual arts, dance, music and theater. The standards are written to be instructional, assessable and aspirational. Learn more about the history and process for developing the National Arts Education Standards.
This publication was published by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards in March 2018.
Watch the October 2014 webcast of the public launch of the National Core Arts Standards.
Yes. NAEA provides virtual and face-to-face training through a variety of opportunities. Visit events and Virtual Art Educators. If you are interested in NAEA bringing training to your state or district, contact Dennis Inhulsen, NAEA Chief Learning Officer, at dinhulsen@arteducators.org.
Please review the following NAEA publications:
The NAEA Board adopted these policies as part of the research for updating the NAEA publication, Purposes, Principles, and Standards for School Art Programs, which provides what is commonly referred to as “Opportunity to Learn Standards.” This detailed publication provides information about what standards need to be in place in order to build a high quality visual arts education program at all grade levels and district-wide. The “Opportunity to Learn Standards” provide checklists for program evaluation in the following areas: Organizational Structure; Curriculum Development; Personnel; Time and Scheduling; Buildings and Facilities; Materials, Equipment and Resources; and Budget.
