Visual Arts

  • West Seneca Central Schools' Art Department has developed a curriculum based on a comprehensive approach called Discipline Based Art Education (D.B.A.E.).

    This approach draws on four foundational art disciplines for its instructional approach: art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and art production. Our teachers agree that students should acquire knowledge about the contributions artists and art make to culture and society (art history); understand how people justify judgment about art objects (aesthetics); be able to respond to the properties and qualities that exist in visual forms (art criticism); and be able to produce their own works of art (art production).

    One of the purposes of art education is to increase students' abilities to think and communicate visually. Historically, artists have always been inspired by the past - what artists before them have created. Our students, in their study of art history, are inspired by the works of these artists to create their own artwork. In studying the works of the past, our students learn about the elements and principals of art, techniques used by various artists, as well as what has historically inspired artists to create art.