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The Visual Arts Exhibition: Is Contemporary Art Penalized?
Conceptual Qualities? I was recently in conversation with the DP Visual Arts Chief Examiner, Subject Manager and Principal Examiner for Exhibition SL. The Subject Manager was interested in particular...
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What Price Freedom of Expression?
It would be stretching things to call me a rebel, or subversive, or even a dissident, but I have recently had my words censored! Well, OK, maybe not ‘my’ words exactly, but the words of a student in...
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I Know about Assessment…But What’s ‘Best Fit’?
Assessment At the time of writing this, I’m moderating some work uploaded for the IA (visual arts exhibition) component for the November examination session, which means spending a lot of time...
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Nudes vs. Prudes
Discussions, and what is ‘acceptable’ I recently had a conversation that reminded me that even in my school, which I considered to be fairly enlightened and progressive, there are corners of...
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The Best Primary Source – Talk to the Artist!
Research into art The Comparative Study and the Process Portfolio both involve some level of research into and review of into artworks. Inevitably, for many students a lot of this research is...
View ArticleBlast from the Past
Thirty Years Ago In December I thought I’d dig a little into some IBDP visual arts memories and look at the course as it was 30 years ago, when I was a young and eager art teacher (not so young now but...
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“No sevens ever seem to be awarded? Even sixes are rare…”
In my last workshop, a teacher commented “One particular post on My IB raised an issue that has been on my mind a lot lately, the question of how to coach my students to get a seven – or near as...
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Exploring the World Around You
The senior examining and assessment teams have been looking through examples of work submitted in the recent visual arts examination sessions (May and November 2017 and 2018) in order to find helpful...
View ArticleStudents Can Take 2 IBDP Arts Subjects!
It’s February, and grade 10 students in my school are starting to consider and possibly start selecting the subjects they would like to study in grade 11 as part of their Diploma Programme courses. My...
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Are You “Critical, Informed and Discerning”‘?
Great new art… Much new, contemporary and recent art is fantastic – intelligent, thought-provoking, sometimes perplexing and mysterious, frequently posing deep and/or unsettling questions. But of...
View ArticleQuestions about the Comparative Study
I have received some questions from students about the Comparative Study, mostly – but not all – about making connections to the students’ own art-making practice. The last one dropped in as a comment...
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The Visual Arts Upload Reminders/Advice
If you are teaching Grade 12/Year 2 Visual Arts students, by now you should be making final preparations for the upload to IBIS. The deadlines (next month) are listed below with details of what you...
View ArticleProcess Portfolio (PP) Questions
8 PP questions from new teachers Here are some Process Portfolio questions I have been asked in recent visual arts workshops. I’m posting them here on the visual arts blog because I suspect that some...
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COHERENCE? (‘Here is your theme. Stick to it for the next two years’)
Reconsider the theme: is it always a bad idea? There are many things wrong with these two sentences, as uttered by a visual arts teacher to one of his students. First of all, you don’t need to have a...
View ArticleSeven Questions about Starting to Teach the Course
In recent category 1 visual arts workshops I have been asked some great questions about our subject; for example, what to teach, how to balance the things we teach, how much time we should have to...
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See Real Art: Visit an Art Gallery!
Student question:“It’s 2019. What is the point of looking at art that was made in 1520, five hundred years ago? How is that relevant to me?” We were at the Royal Academy (London) and looking at “Venus...
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Photography (only?) in the Exhibition
Let’s be clear: unlike the Process Portfolio, there are no requirements that students explore a range of media/processes in the Exhibition. A successful exhibition could consist of, say, ten artworks...
View ArticleTwo issues with curatorial rationales
As an IA (Exhibition) moderator I very often read a) eloquent and frequently passionate curatorial rationales that do not achieve the mark that perhaps the student expected, and b) rationales that...
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Why so generous? – IA predictions
(i.e. why are the marks awarded by teachers for the visual arts IA component – the Exhibition – sometimes wildly unrealistic?) A group of IA moderators were chatting about their experiences in the...
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“Raising awareness of world issues” – The pitfalls (Concepts and Exhibition)
Conceptually speaking, the trouble with ‘raising awareness’ of world issues in your visual arts exhibition is that in most cases, awareness has already been raised, and examiners will probably have...
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