St Edward's IB Guide 2026

VISUAL ARTS

The visual arts course encourages pupils to challenge their own creative and cultural expectations and boundaries. Pupils will develop analytical skills in problem solving and divergent thinking, while working towards technical proficiency and confidence as art makers by experimenting and engaging in a range of contemporary practices and media.

Pupils will develop a personal visual language and learn to communicate their artistic intentions to different audiences, making connections with the work of other artists whilst learning through three core areas – create, connect and communicate.

There are three components to the course:

COMPONENT

CONTENT

SL HL

Art Making Inquiry Portfolio

An online portfolio of 15 screens evidencing various lines of inquiry to develop the pupil’s own visual language. The portfolio will demonstrate the variety of experiments, thought processes and explorations of different media experienced throughout the course and how the pupil has developed and refined their practice. Standard Level The study allows the pupils an opportunity to contextualise one of their resolved pieces demonstrating the connection between the work and their own context(s), and at least two artworks by different artists. The connections must be informed by research, and the study must demonstrate understanding of the cultural significance of the two artworks by different artists. Higher Level This is a stand-alone HL-only task focused on the pupil creating their work in a specific context by making connections with at least two artworks by different artists. The in-depth study gives pupils an opportunity to further their practice, finding a deeper connection between their work and their audience. The maximum word count is 2,500. Standard Level Pupils create five resolved artworks in their chosen media, demonstrating their artistic achievements and artistic intentions through a coherent body of work. Pupils will write a supporting rationale of 700 words to articulate their artistic intentions and the choices that informed the making of their coherent body of artworks. Higher Level In addition to the five resolved artworks and rationale, HL pupils must submit five supporting artwork texts (with a total word count that doesn’t exceed 1,000 words) and eight screens demonstrating the other resolved works from which they have carefully selected their final five.

40% 30%

Connection Task (SL)

20%

Artist Project (HL)

30%

Resolved Artworks (IA)

40%

40%

ST EDWARD’S OXFORD

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