Secondary Art

Middle School Art

Art is offered as an elective at every middle school in McKinney ISD. Middle school art teachers encourage students to develop their visual and artistic skills in a positive working environment. The sequential curriculum has been developed according to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

High School Art

A variety of courses in the visual arts is offered at the high school level to develop each student’s artistic skills and to guide them to visually express their own ideas. Classes offered include drawing, painting, sculpture, and composition. Pre-Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement art courses are offered at each campus.

Art Program Goals

The art program is designed to help the students to:

1. Realize that each individual’s ideas are of value because they are tangible results of personal experience.
2. Produce and recognize the value of his/her own imaginative and inventive works of art while becoming aware of his/her artistic talent and its needs for further development.
3. Progress students through a sequentially developed curriculum moving from level to level in such a way that maximum growth is attained by building on prior learning.
4. Develop independent thinking by planning and executing his/her own ideas for truly creative expression instead of copy work.
5. Realize that creative art processes are a means of communication that extend beyond the limitation of the printed or spoken work.
6. Understand the characteristics, limitation, and possibilities of a great variety of materials, tools, equipment, and processes used in visual expression.
7. Develop an art vocabulary based on the elements and principles of design sufficient to communicate ideas about art.
8. Realize the many sources of creative ideas come from natural and man-made environments.
9. Realize that art is a means for emotional release and a worthwhile leisure time activity.
10. Use the elements and principles of design in evaluating and appreciating the aesthetic efforts of past and present artists and their cultural and historical influences on current times.
11. Become aware of opportunities in art careers through careful teacher nurturing.
12. Become aware of his/her responsibilities as a citizen to support cultural and environmental projects in a continuing effort to improve the quality of life.
13. Incorporate art perception, production, history, and criticism in a concept-based approach.
14. Incorporate concept-based art into other content areas.