Visual Arts
Our K–12 visual arts curriculum engages students as artists, thinkers, and creators who use visual language to explore ideas, communicate meaning, and connect to the world around them.
Grounded in the Colorado Academic Standards for Visual Arts, students progress through a cyclical creative process that includes observing and learning, envisioning and critiquing, inventing and discovering, and relating and transferring learning across contexts. From early exploration and playful experimentation in elementary school to increasingly intentional, research-informed, and concept-driven work in secondary grades, students develop technical skill, artistic voice, and critical thinking. Through making, reflecting, and connecting art to culture, community, and lived experience, students learn to persist through the creative process and apply artistic thinking beyond the art classroom.
Below you’ll find documents that outline the key topics and concepts taught throughout the school year in art. These overviews provide a high-level snapshot of the instructional sequence for each grade level. Where available, each unit is linked to a more detailed unit plan, which includes the standards, essential content, and instructional focus. While the site is accessible to all stakeholders, some linked resources, such as assessments or copyrighted instructional materials, may only be accessible to staff.