The Arts Standards
The 2017 New York State P-12 Learning Standards for the Arts are designed to develop artistically literate citizens. An artistically literate citizen has the knowledge, skills and understanding to actively engage in the arts throughout their lives. The intrinsic nature of the arts leads to and promotes a civilized, sustainable society. Artistically literate graduates are career and college ready, capable of understanding and addressing the needs of society, and participating in a global economy.
Through creating, performing, responding and connecting in the arts, students generate experiences, construct knowledge and build a more integrated understanding of self and community. They explore and express ideas, feelings and beliefs about the past and present; discover new ideas; and begin to envision possible futures. Through careful study of their own and others’ art, students explore and make sense of the broad human condition across time and cultures.
Arts literacy also fosters connections between the arts, and between the arts and other disciplines, thereby providing opportunities to access, develop, express and integrate meaning across a variety of content areas. Indeed, an arts literate individual recognizes the value of the arts as a place of free expression; and the importance of observing and participating in the social, political, spiritual, financial and aesthetic aspects of their communities (both local and global, in person and virtually); and works to introduce the arts into those settings.