Art

Within the art curriculum, culture is mentioned each year. Culture needs to be incorporated in the primary grades by using local artworks as examples and artistic traditions from other cultures. To avoid cultural appropriation, ensure the history behind the piece is understood and see if there is any way to bring in pieces that help decolonize the assignment. Also, within primary grades, students start to notice the relationship between culture, community, and time. This can be incorporated with the Social Studies curriculum since students start going through different time periods and how Canada and different cultures have interacted throughout history.

As we move into the intermediate and middle grades, cultural appropriation and appreciation are mentioned in the curriculum, and students should understand the difference between the two. When looking and creating different art pieces, students need to know how to create work that is not appropriating or plagiarising from another culture and whether it is ethical to create certain pieces. This will strengthen students’ critical thinking skills since they will learn how to make these choices for themselves as they create pieces that appreciate and respect different cultures.