The Buffalo Public Schools' Arts Curriculum in Dance, Theatre, and Visual Arts is guided by the New York State P-12 Learning Standards for the Arts, which is 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 art form and that of others in various arts disciplines, students explore and make sense of the broad human condition across time and cultures.

• Arts literacy also fosters connections between the arts disciplines, as well as between the arts and other areas of learning, 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.

   

New York State Statewide Strategic Plan for the Arts (rvsd), April 2017, p. 2

For more information on NYS Arts Standards, Implementation Guide, Workbooks, Placemats, Posters, and Glossaries, go to this link:

New York State P-12 Learning Standards for the Arts