The purpose of this thesis research was to create a comprehensive semester-long high school art curriculum for students beyond the introductory level. The history of art education curriculum was explored and a curricular framework developed that combines two contemporary pedagogical methods: Olivia Gude's Principles of Possibility and Anderson and Milbrandt's Art for Life. Both methods focus on designing art curriculum relevant to the student's life and experiences. By providing students with opportunities to create meaningful and personally relevant art work, teachers encourage them to learn valuable life skills through the arts, such as problem solving, divergent/critical thinking, leadership, collaboration, self-reflection, and appreciation for cultural diversity, all skills necessary for leading purposeful lives and being active participants in our dominantly visual society. The curriculum was distributed to four high school art educators for professional feedback. Their critique is presented in the results and discussion section. Personally relevant curricula such as this can help school administrators understand the contribution that art education makes to the holistic education of learners and hopefully save more art programs from being cut.
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