Art Department K-12

Welcome to the Art Department!

When parents and families become involved in their children’s education, students achieve great success! This site is designed to help parents understand what children are expected to learn in art– and how to help them succeed. This site features links to other information about art education in Mentor Schools and helpful tools for you and your K-12 art student. We find reasons to celebrate art in the Mentor Schools community everyday, and our students are encouraged to participate in local, state and national events, shows and competitions throughout the year.

This is our K-12 Art Department August 18, 2022!

Learning in a Visual Age - Why Art Education Matters, by the National Art Education Association

Our K-12 Art Curriculum

Daniel Pinkwater, a famous illustrator stated, “I believe it is impossible to make sense of life in this world except through art.” We are pleased to announce that our revised K-12 Art Course of Study, written by the Art Curriculum Revision Committee, has been approved by the Board of Education. The Art Revision Committee believes art education not only allows students to broaden their understanding and appreciation of the world around them, it is also contributes significantly to a child’s intellectual development.

Careers in the 21st century will demand creative and innovative thinkers who can communicate and collaborate across cultures. Art encourages critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. These higher-order thinking skills are critical for students to learn in order to live productively in our emerging global society. Some highlights of the revision include a 21st Century Skills Index which indicates the integration of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) throughout the K-12 curriculum. Some examples include:

employing digital tools and resources to create and publish original artwork
using technology appropriately to acquire information about art historically and globally
using technology for analyzing art-making challenges
and using technology for collaborating with peers, and sharing works of art through digital portfolios.

We believe that the arts are VITAL in providing a well-rounded education for our students. Art education promotes student success in society, school, developing intelligence and life. The K-12 Art Curriculum at Mentor Schools is aligned to the Ohio Department of Education's Fine Arts Academic Content Standards.The link below allows you to open and view the Fine Arts Academic Content Standards in three different layouts: organized by standard, organized by grade level and with the benchmarks and indicators aligned.

See The Ohio Visual Arts Content Standards (here)

Alumni

As a Mentor Schools alum, you play a critical role in our students' and our community's understanding of the arts! We are actively working on ways to keep you connected with us and with one another. We developed this survey with the goal of communicating with our alumni in the hope that we can share the best opportunities and most useful resources with our current art students and inform our stakeholders about careers in art.
Take our Mentor High School Art Alumni Survey (here)