Visual Arts

• Teaching Staff:
• Mrs Louise Manks - Head Teacher
• Mr Tony Cabassi
• Mrs Siobhan Chazarreta
• Ms Amanda Bowen
• Ms Isabelle Moran

Visual Arts education at Bulli High School highly values how students engage in the creative and intellectual process to produce artworks that demonstrate an approach that is imaginative, inventive and challenging.

Visual Arts places a high regard on how students develop an informed point of view and encourage tolerance, diversity and empathy between students, teachers and others in the expression of different points of view which leads to respecting cultural diversity within our societies and also in other regions and cultures.

This subject rewards individual thinking and offers students opportunities to engage in creative and inductive forms of inquiry. The flexible content of the course provides for specific needs of students preparing them for further education, training and employment. The knowledge, understanding, skills and values gained from this subject assist students in building conceptual and practical skills which can be applied throughout life.

Visual Arts is mandatory in Years 7 & 8 and offered as an elective in years 9 - 12. Photography and Digital Media is explored in Year 7 & 8 and offered as an elective in Years 9 - 12.

HSC Success

Visual Arts students have consistently achieved at a high level in the HSC with a proud and highly consistent pattern of selection for ArtExpress exhibitions over many years. The faculty has a strong pattern of high achievement which has been consistent over many years.

The great majority of our students achieve Band 5 or 6.

2013 Bulli High Visual Arts Faculty was awarded the Dobell prize for excellence in teaching and promoting Visual Arts in education.

Years 7 & 8

Mandatory Course Years 7 and 8

Students discover techniques, materials, artists and subject matter in a course that introduces them to a range of traditional and contemporary, including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photography and digital imaging. They will develop an understanding of visual arts concepts and terminology as they progress through a variety of practical and written tasks which explore artmaking from a range of different viewpoints.

Year 9 & 10

Stage 5 Elective Course Years 9 and 10

Visual Arts - This course builds on the foundation studies of the Mandatory course. Students explore the natural environment, the human figure, the built environment, eastern and western approaches to artmaking, conceptual art, modernism and contemporary practice. The course leads towards a final independent learning project  which marries an investigation of twentieth century practice with a concept-based approach that addresses the student's choice of a fundamental visual arts theme. Students are encouraged to explore, experiment and research using a visual arts diary. Increasingly, students are using digital and photographic technologies, along with video, in addition to conventional materials.

Year 11

Visual Arts has a flexible content structure with students learning about practice (artmaking, art criticism and art history), the conceptual framework(artist, artwork, world, audience) and the frames (subjective, cultural, structural and postmodern).

Students develop increasing autonomy in their practical and theoretical understanding, knowledge and skills as they learn about Visual Arts through artmaking, art criticism and art history.

Photography and Digital Imaging, Years 9, 10 and 11

Students explore digital and wet photography in this two unit course. The course in an interest based elective that does not count towards the ATAR rank. It is designed for Visual Arts students wishing to explore Photography in Year 12 and for students with a personal interest in photography. PhotoShop is used extensively and students learn to develop their Film making skills through Adobe Premiere and Final Cut editing programs, along with black and white darkroom processes. Students do not have to use their own camera, but may do so if desired.

Year 12

Students will develop knowledge, skills and understanding of how they may represent their interpretations of the world through artmaking. They will gain an informed point of view about the Visual Arts in their critical and historical accounts.

Learning and experiences are based on flexible content structure consisting of practice (artmaking, art criticism and art history), the conceptual framework (artist, artwork, world, audience) and the frames (subjective, cultural, structural and postmodern).

Students apply their  knowledge and ability in the development of their Body of work HSC submission through out the year 12 course, culminating in a showcase exhibition in our "Short Gallery"