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Social studies and art history provide the point of departure for the art program at all grade levels. The visual arts curriculum enables children to explore various media (mixed media, paint, clay, pastels, pencil, fabric, metal, printmaking, and photography, among others) to develop an understanding of art concepts (shape, form, color, design, texture, shading) and to meet artistic challenges with confidence. The curriculum is also intended to enable children to find new ways of communication and self-expression and to ultimately feel comfortable with their own forms of artistic expression. Art work done with the visual arts specialist differs from art that is done in the regular classroom because the specialist focuses on process and exploration of media. In conjunction with social studies themes, the lives and works of various artists are connected to the cultures or history explored in the homeroom curriculum.
Examples of the visual arts curriculum:
KINDERGARTEN: Children learn the language of art by experimenting with multi-media work. They look at the way various artists including Matisse, Kandinsky, and Picasso have used these elements.
FIRST GRADE: Children participate in cooperative art projects related to the study of Native Americans. They are introduced to Lucy Lewis and her pottery, and to the color images of Juan Quezada. Various methods of mask making, pictographs, and cave paintings are also explored.
SECOND GRADE: Students study the architecture of the city of Santa Monica. Louise Nevelson's inventive three-dimensional constructions are the inspiration for wood and mixed media projects. Alexander Calder's work is explored along with that of Miriam Schapiro and Janet Fish.
THIRD GRADE: Students focus on continuity and change in themselves and in the art of different cultures. They investigate the art of South Africa and create African masks with a variety of materials.
FOURTH GRADE: Students study Hispanic and American artists. Works by Picasso, Georgia O'Keefe, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera are explored. Architecture is emphasized through a study of California missions as well as through examination of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects.
FIFTH GRADE: Students explore ideas, techniques, and materials created by American artists with diverse cultural influences. Artists relevant to the Colonial Period, such as Newell Convers Wyeth, are studied. Students also involve themselves in art significant to the Industrial Revolution. A photography project concentrates on the work of Ansel Adams, Bruce Davison, and Annie Liebowitz.
