11–12Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2026)

Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 provides opportunities for students to engage with a range of artworks, participate in art making for creative opportunities and self-expression, and develop an appreciation and enjoyment of the arts. Students engage with practitioners to explore how artworks can represent ideas about the world and share cultural views. Students develop skills to communicate their own ideas, choices and preferences in artworld contexts and collaborate safely with others.

Through the study of Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12, students:

• learn how artworks communicate ideas and meaning
• learn what artists and other practitioners do
• develop skills to engage in art making for personal interest and enjoyment
• develop skills to generate and represent ideas in their art making
• develop skills to select and use art forms, materials, techniques and processes in their art making
• develop skills to use art making to express themselves and present their ideas to an audience
• develop skills to interact safely and responsibly, and to communicate and think creatively in art making and everyday contexts.

The following focus areas can be studied throughout Year 11 (120 hours) and Year 12 (120 hours).

• Art making
• Art criticism and art history
• Art making: Artwork series.

For Visual Arts Life Skills:

• Students are required to demonstrate achievement of one or more Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 outcomes.
• Outcomes and content should be selected to meet the particular needs of individual students.
• The focus areas provide possible frameworks for addressing the Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 outcomes and content and are suggestions only. Teachers have the flexibility to select, group and sequence outcomes and content to meet the needs, strengths, goals, interests and prior learning of their students.
• Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints underpin the learning in each focus area.
• Case studies provide students an opportunity to explore examples of the diverse practice of other artists and inspiration to extend their practice. Case studies should be used, as appropriate, to support the development of students’ knowledge and skills across the focus areas.
• Opportunities should be provided for students to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' artworks and the artists who create them, as well as artworks and practices from different times, places and contexts.
• Students should engage with a range of art forms as appropriate to their needs, interests and abilities. Art making can include creating parts of an artwork as well as a completed artwork or an artwork series.
• A Visual Arts diary may be used to support students in documenting their art making practice in formats suited to their individual needs.
• Some students with disability may require adjustments, including assistive technology (AT) to access Art making and Art criticism and art history.
• Examples provided in the content are suggestions only. Teachers may use the examples provided or use other examples to meet the particular needs of individual students.

Case studies are investigations into Loading  in Art making, and Art criticism and art history. Case studies can focus on an individual investigation or a range of investigations suited to the interests and needs of students.

Case studies can include established artworks, artists and practitioners, forms, and practices interpreted through the lens of one or more Viewpoints. Case studies may be drawn from historical or contemporary contexts. They may consider artists and practitioners with diverse abilities or experiences from diverse backgrounds.

Case studies that include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Communities should align with Loading .

Some students with disability may require adjustments when engaging in art history and art criticism. This may include the use of assistive technology (AT) to access images, digital archives, artworks, and other resources in accessible formats.

In Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12, making artworks provides students with an opportunity to explore a range of art forms, as well as the ways in which subject matter, ideas and concepts can be represented through artworks.

The range of art forms includes:

• ceramics
• collection of works
• designed objects and environments
• documented forms
• drawing
• graphic design
• painting
• photomedia
• printmaking
• sculpture
• textiles and fibre
• time-based forms.

When developing artworks, students can be supported to explore a range of artworks, artists, ideas, representations and subject matter. Explorations into the practices of others support students to develop their conceptual, technical and material practice to shape meaning.

The focus area Art making: Artwork series provides students with opportunities to draw on learning from Art making and engage in sustained art making practice to develop a single work or a series of works produced in one of the art forms. The series of works can be connected through a coherent point of view in relation to subject matter, themes, materials, techniques or processes. Students use their understanding of Loading  to develop their artwork or artwork series.

Some students with disability may require adjustments, including assistive technology (AT), to engage in making artworks and/or the creation of an artwork series.

Students may be supported to keep a Visual Arts diary to document their art making practice. Different art making practices can be considered in the diary and applied by the student to their own art making.

The Visual Arts diary may document:

• research, planning, reflection, intentions, strategies, motives and judgements
• research on artists’ practice
• development of ideas, concepts and representational strategies
• investigations of subject matter, interests, issues and conceptual challenges
• experimentation with skills, materials, procedures and art forms
• exploration of artwork properties, compositional choices, materials and techniques
• refinements, curatorial choices, evaluations and decisions.

In Years 11 and 12, students engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks, artists and practitioners. This content supports students to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Cultural Knowledges, Practices and Expressions. This content is to be applied intentionally, shaping the development of knowledge, understanding and skills within the Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus.

The study of artworks by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, including artists, historians, critics and curators, should consider the following.

Cultural connection to Community, Country or Place

• Students recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks are grounded in relationships to Country or Place, kinship systems and Community values. Students learn how these connections influence artistic ideas, choices, materials, techniques and the meanings represented in artworks.

Historical, political and social perspectives

• Students investigate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks can respond to historical events, political movements and social change. Students consider how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists can use the visual arts to communicate resilience, Cultural continuity, identity and truth-telling across time.

Representation, identity and voice

• Students explore the artistic and Cultural value of artworks, considering how identity, diversity, histories and Cultures are represented and how these expressions sustain Cultural Knowledges across generations. They learn about how connections to Country or Place, Storytelling and lived experiences shape artistic voice, and influence the meanings, intentions, and use of signs and symbols within artworks.

Creative and collaborative processes

• Students consider how art making reflects Cultural Practices such as collective creation, Storytelling, intergenerational learning and Community collaboration. Students explore the importance of engaging with Elders, Cultural Knowledge Holders, artists and Community members in the development of visual artworks.

Ethical and respectful engagement, including Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)

• Students engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks in ways that respect Cultural protocols and integrity and that demonstrate respect, connection, and care for Country or Place. This includes understanding permissions, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov), and appropriate use of stories, signs and symbols.

Audience, interpretation and meaning

• Students consider how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks communicate relationships with Culture, Community, Cultural identity and Country or Place, and how different audiences engage with and understand these connections.
• Students reflect on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks are viewed and interpreted, and how this informs a range of meanings.

Schools are required to ensure they follow Loading  in delivering the Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus.