Dance
Drama
Music
Visual Arts

The panoramic photographs of Manitoba landscapes in the website banners are used with the kind permission of © Stan Milosevic.

The “landscape” images and metaphor illustrated in the website banners represent current understandings about curriculum presented in the “Guiding Principles for WNCP Curriculum Framework Projects” (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, 2011).

New ways of thinking about curriculum involve a “shift in the images we use, away from knowledge pictured as fragmented pieces put together, one piece at a time, in a linear fashion on an assembly line, to an image of knowledge as a complex organic network organized into living fields, territories or 'landscapes'. Learning about these living fields of knowledge requires: 'learning the landscape'.”

 About the banner

Welcome to the Manitoba Arts Education Website!

This website was created to provide access to Kindergarten to Grade 12 Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts curriculum frameworks developed by the Department of Education and Training and to provide implementation resources for these subject areas.

The Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts curriculum frameworks and implementation resources are intended to support, promote and inspire the growth of all students as artistic learners as they journey towards becoming creative, artistically literate “adults and citizens who will truly enrich their own lives and the lives of future communities” (Manitoba Education, 2011, p. 10).

Arts Education in Manitoba schools is mandatory from Grades 1-8. The number and choice of Arts subject areas offered in a school will depend upon local context. Recommended time allotments are 10% of instructional time in Grades 1-6 and 8% of instructional time in Grades 7 and 8.

System-wide implementation of the Kindergarten to Grade 8 Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts curriculum frameworks was initiated in 2011. System-wide implementation of the Grades 9 to 12 Dance, Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual Arts curriculum frameworks was initiated in the 2015-2016 school year. A second edition of the Kindergarten to Grade 8 Dance, Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual arts curriculum frameworks has been published in 2021.

Arts Education Grant Program for 2024/2025

Teachers are invited to apply for funding (maximum of $500) for creative projects in dance, drama, music and visual arts. The deadline for submission is November 8, 2024. Forms and more details are available on the Arts Education Grant Program's webpage.

Kindergarten to Grade 8 Brochure

The following brochure summarizes the Kindergarten to Grade 8 recursive learnings in dance, music, dramatic arts and visual arts.

Kindergarten to Grade 8 recursive learnings brochure (11 x 17) (pdf document 7.51 MB)

Administration and Implementation Guide for Grades 9 to 12 Arts Education and Accompanying Resources

The Administration and Implementation Guide for Grades 9 to 12 Arts Education and accompanying resources, including curriculum planners, learning/course design tools and screencasts, are available on the 9 to 12 Implementation Resources tab of the Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts webpages.

Frequently Asked Questions: Grades 9 to 12 Dance, Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts

These Frequently Asked Questions provide information related to the new Grades 9 to 12 Dance, Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual Arts curriculum frameworks. The FAQs address questions about Grades 9 to 12 Arts Education implementation, assessment, courses, credits and course codes.