Sweden Compulsory School Visual Arts Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the knowledge and skills students are expected to develop in visual arts throughout compulsory school. Visual arts education emphasizes the importance of images in thinking, learning, and experiencing the world. Students engage with various visual cultures, including film, photography, design, art, architecture, and diverse environments. The curriculum aims to foster creativity, critical thinking, and an understanding of visual communication.

Aim

The aim of visual arts education is to develop students' knowledge of image creation and interpretation. Students will gain experience in producing and presenting their own images using various methods, materials, and forms of expression. The curriculum encourages creative exploration, initiative, and problem-solving. Students will also learn to analyze visual messages in different media, critically examine visual communication, and understand the role of images in different cultures and historical periods.

Core Content

The core content is structured progressively across three levels:

Years 1-3:

• Producing Pictures: Creating narrative pictures, such as illustrations. Exploring drawing, painting, modeling, and design. Introduction to photography and basic image transfer using computer software.
• Tools for Producing Pictures: Learning about basic picture elements like color, form, line, surface, foreground, and background. Introduction to basic tools for drawing, painting, modeling, designing, and photographing. Exploring flat and moldable materials like paper, clay, plaster, and natural materials.
• Analyzing Pictures: Understanding informative pictures, such as those in textbooks. Examining historical and contemporary pictures, including local documentary images and art.

Years 4-6:

• Producing Pictures: Creating narrative and informative pictures, including comics and illustrations for texts. Exploring drawing, painting, printing, and three-dimensional work. Reusing images in collages and visual montages. Introduction to photography and filming, including basic editing using computer programs.
• Tools for Producing Pictures: Understanding elements that create a sense of space in pictures, such as lines and colors. Learning about tools for drawing, painting, printing, three-dimensional work, photography, filming, and digital image processing. Further exploration of flat and moldable materials.
• Analyzing Pictures: Examining images in advertising and news. Analyzing art, documentary pictures, and architectural works from different periods and cultures. Developing vocabulary for interpreting and discussing picture design and message.

Years 7-9:

• Producing Pictures: Creating narrative, informative, and socially oriented pictures expressing personal experiences and views. Combining images, sound, and text. Reusing images, materials, and objects in installations. Digital image processing. Presenting own productions. Understanding rights, obligations, ethics, and values related to image use, including freedom of speech and integrity.
• Tools for Producing Pictures: Understanding the meaning of forms, colors, and pictorial compositions. Learning about materials and tools for two- and three-dimensional work.
• Analyzing Pictures: Examining images dealing with identity, sexuality, ethnicity, and power relations. Analyzing mass media communication and its impact. Interpreting contemporary art, documentary images, and art and architectural works from different periods and cultures. Developing vocabulary for interpreting and discussing picture design and message.

Knowledge Requirements

Detailed knowledge requirements are specified for each grade level (A-E) at the end of years 6 and 9. These requirements outline the expected level of proficiency in producing, analyzing, and discussing images, as well as using various tools and techniques. The requirements emphasize the development of a visual language, creative expression, and critical thinking skills.