Visual Arts & Design

Visual Arts and Design, from a Christian Worldview, can be seen as a direct interaction and representation with God's splendour and sovereignty. Genesis 1:27 speaks of God creating 'man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.' In the same way that God is the creator, he made us as creative beings.

In the Visual Arts & Design Department, we are able to experience creating art and design in a variety of ways and reflect on how we as Christians can enjoy creating and enjoying what God has created for us here on Earth. Each one of us is blessed with the ability to think creatively and with opportunity to nurture that ability and create pieces that are pleasing to God and others.

The Visual Arts & Design curriculum encourages and supports students to recognise their individual potential as art makers and presents a guided process to assist their understanding and development of art making.

The visual world is becoming increasingly complex; the quantity and quality of advertisement, marketing and their effects on us and our students as consumers, is something that is very important to explore with students. Furthermore, our Christian Worldview responses to this as the media and advertisement and our ability to discern and decipher these underlying messages is invaluable for our students as they embark on life in the ‘real world’ in the near future; a visual literacy.

We aim to establish effective art and design practices through the application of an individual studio and design process to assist in the production of a folio of artworks and/or designs.

With a knowledge base embedded in the theory and practice of Visual Arts, Media Arts, Visual Communication Design and PDT, the subject includes drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, visual communication and design, digital media and art appreciation. The learning focus is designed to encourage divergent thinking, exploration and experimentation, risk taking and creative problem solving leading to developing and defining a personal style. The theoretical components of Art and Design are important for students’ work, as they offer a strong foundation of information to base ideas on for artworks and designs.

Art is a compulsory subject from Foundation to Year 8, with electives offered at Middle School and Senior School levels. Covenant College offers VCE Unit 1-4 Studio Arts, Visual Communication Design and Media.