The IB DP Visual Arts course offers a transformative journey into creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression. It invites students to:
Ask meaningful questions through personal and cultural inquiry
Build technical and conceptual strength through resolved, reflective artworks
Explore visual language in context — across time, place, and perspective
Art-Ed Hub helps teachers bring this course to life with clarity and confidence, offering thoughtful resources that simplify complexity and inspire creativity in the classroom.
Art-making in the IB DP Visual Arts course goes beyond creativity. It becomes a way of thinking, questioning, and discovering.
Through experimentation and reflection, students:
Ask meaningful questions about themselves and their world
Explore multiple perspectives and creative possibilities
Build resilience and adaptability through artistic challenges
When educators integrate these skills into their teaching, they help students experience art as a lifelong process of inquiry, growth, and discovery.
By integrating these skills into their teaching, educators can inspire students to see art as a lifelong process of learning and discovery.
The IB DP Visual Arts course is built around three interconnected areas of focus. Together, they support students in developing a personal artistic voice while deepening their understanding of art’s place in a wider cultural and historical context.
Exploring personal ideas through hands-on experimentation, artistic risk-taking, and material play.
Investigating how art reflects and responds to cultural, historical, and social contexts.
Curating and presenting resolved artworks to express ideas with clarity and intention.
Both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students work with the same three core areas of the IB DP Visual Arts course.
The key differences lie in the depth, scope, and level of independence expected at each level.
SL students complete a Connections Study, analysing one of their own artworks alongside two works by other artists. Their final submission includes five resolved artworks.
HL students undertake an Artist Project, an independent inquiry that leads to a final resolved artwork and a written rationale. They also submit a curated selection of five artworks drawn from a broader body of work.
The Art-Making Inquiries Portfolio (AIP)
Both SL and HL students submit up to 15 digital screens. HL students are expected to show greater depth in both conceptual development and technical engagement.
Weighting Differences: Whilst SL and HL follow the same core structure, their final grade weightings differ. HL places more emphasis on sustained inquiry and the depth of submitted work across all components.
These distinctions highlight the greater independence, depth, and critical thinking expected at Higher Level.
These cards are shaped by lived experience and offer calm, practical guidance on everything from structuring the AIP to writing with clarity and intention. They’re here to make the complex feel clear, and to help you focus on what really matters.
Art-Ed Hub is a space for creative transformation, where curiosity is protected, authenticity is encouraged, and growth becomes possible.
Whether you’re an educator, artist, or seeker, you’ll find tools, insights, and frameworks that support creative confidence and meaningful exploration.
Here, creativity is not just a skill. It’s a way of becoming.
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