In creative arts, students discover a variety of art forms through a study of dance, drama, music and visual arts.
Studying the creative arts, students learn to appreciate, compose, listen, make and perform. Each art form has its own unique knowledge and skills, elements or concepts as well as a capacity to inspire and enrich lives.
Students must study 100 hours of both music and visual arts during Years 7 to 10. They also have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in other art forms through elective subjects including drama, dance, photography and visual design. Students can then select from a range of courses in Years 11 to 12.
Subjects offered in CaPA
Drama
This course provides students with the opportunity to engage in collaborative and individual experiences to develop skills in interpretation, communication, performance and critical analysis. Students engage with the cultural traditions and social contexts of drama and theatre through critical study and experiences in practical workshop activities and performances.
Visual Arts
Stage 4 (Mandatory) and Stage 5 (Elective)
Visual Arts provides opportunities for students to enjoy the making and studying of art. It builds an understanding of the role of art in all forms of media, both in the contemporary and historical world, and enables students to represent their ideas and interests in artworks. Visual Arts enables students to become informed about, understand and write about their contemporary world.
Visual Arts involves students in artmaking, art criticism and art history. Students critically and historically investigate artworks, critics, historians and artists from Australia as well as those from other cultures, traditions and times. Students develop their own artworks, culminating in a 'body of work' in the HSC course.
Ceramics
Ceramics is the art and technology of forming, firing and glazing clay to make a wide variety of products, ranging from building materials to ceramic ware such as plates, bowls and drinking vessels, jewellery, sculpture and decorative wall surfaces.
Contemporary applications of ceramics are constantly expanding. New industrial and high technology uses are being found, and artists and designers are exploring new expressive forms. Ceramics provides challenging work opportunities for students in such areas as studio and industrial ceramics, ceramic research, engineering and product design.
This course enables students to develop an understanding of ceramic processes and practices, and the ways in which these can be used in making a range of products. Students develop a critical appreciation of the aesthetic, expressive and utilitarian qualities of ceramic forms in contemporary and past societies, and knowledge of the diverse applications of ceramics in contemporary society and ways of valuing the skills involved in making well-crafted forms. They also develop skills to give form to their ideas and feelings in ceramic products.
Photography and Digital Media
Stage 5 Photography (Years 9 and 10)
Photographic and Digital Media provides opportunities for students to enjoy making and studying a range of photographic and digital media works. It enables students to represent their ideas and interests about the world, to engage in contemporary forms of communication and understand and write about their contemporary world. Photographic and Digital Media enables students to investigate new technologies, cultural identity and the evolution of photography and digital media into the 21st century. Students are provided with opportunities to make and study photographic and digital media works in greater depth and breadth than through the Visual Arts elective course.
Stage 6 Photgraphy and Digital Media
Photography, Video and Digital Imaging offers students the opportunity to explore contemporary artistic practices that make use of photography, video and digital imaging. These fields of artistic practice resonate within students' experience and understanding of the world and are highly relevant to contemporary ways of interpreting the world. The course offers opportunities for investigation of one or more of these fields and develops students' understanding and skills, which contribute to an informed critical practice.
The course is designed to enable students to gain an increasing accomplishment and independence in their representation of ideas in the fields of photography and/or video and/or digital imaging and understand and value how these fields of practice invite different interpretations and explanations.
Students develop knowledge, understanding and skills through the making of photographs, and/or videos and/or digital images that lead to and demonstrate conceptual and technical accomplishment. They also develop knowledge, understanding and skills that lead to increasingly accomplished critical and historical investigations of photography and/or video and/or digital imaging.
Music
Stage 4 (Mandatory) and 5 (Elective)
All students should have the opportunity to develop their musical abilities and potential. As an artform, music pervades society and occupies a significant place in world cultures and in the oral and recorded history of all civilisations. Music plays important roles in the social, cultural, aesthetic and spiritual lives of people. At an individual level, music is a medium of personal expression. It enables the sharing of ideas, feelings and experiences. The nature of musical study also allows students to develop their capacity to manage their own learning, engage in problem-solving, work collaboratively and engage in activity that reflects the real-world practice of performers, composers and audiences.
Music 1
While the course builds on the Stages 4 and 5 Music course, Music 1 provides an alternative course of study to Music 2. The curriculum structure is adaptable enough to meet the needs and interests of students with varying degrees of prior formal and informal learning in music and caters for students with less experience in Music.
Music 2
While the course builds on the Stages 4 and 5 Music course, it also caters for students with less experience in Music.
Music Extension
The Music Extension course builds on Music 2 Preliminary course and extends the Music 2 HSC course. It assumes a high level of music literacy and aural ability as well as advanced performance or composition or musicology skills.
