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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'.”

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Visual Arts

Implementation Resources (Grades 9 to 12)

Manitoba Education and Training has developed this Administration and Implementation Guide for Grades 9 to 12 Arts Education to support school administrators and educators in planning, administering, and implementing Grades 9 to 12 arts education courses and programming.

A variety of online resources are offered to support administrators and educators in designing, implementing, and assessing learning in visual arts using the four essential learning areas or wings of the visual arts curriculum framework and poster.

The following table identifies the online resources that are available for course and learning design and implementation. It describes the purpose, content, and format of the resources and provides links to the PDFs and screencasts of the resources.

For ease of use, the online resources are produced in a variety of formats, including interactive (fillable) PDF formats for visual arts. The screencasts (explanation videos) that accompany the resources provide an overview of each resource and an explanation of how it can be used.

Curriculum Planner - Visual Arts
The planner is used to The planner provides PDF Screencast
  • support planning with the four arts education curriculum frameworks
  • the learning and assessment design cycle
  • the four essential learning areas with the associated 13 recursive learnings
  • key information about assessment practices, tools, and strategies
 496 KB video

Course Design Tool - Visual Arts
The tool is used to The tool provides PDF Screencast
  • adapt existing arts courses to reflect the arts education curricula
  • create new arts courses based on the arts education curricula
  • transform arts education SICs into S-designated arts education courses using the arts education curricula
  • fillable fields (for course title, code, and description, customized recursive learnings, course organization and resources, and assessment tools and strategies)
  • links to curriculum frameworks (recursive learnings,enacted learnings, and inquiry questions
 563 KB

Learning Design Tool - Visual Arts
The tool is used to The tool provides PDF Screencast
  • design long- and short-term learning experiences in arts education (modules, units, themes, inquiry questions, big ideas) using the arts education curriculum frameworks
  • fillable fields (for learner profiles, learning contexts and connections, school, divisional, and community contexts, curriculum entry points, customized recursive learnings, learning pathways, guiding questions, resources, and assessment tools and strategies for each essential learning area)
  • links to curriculum frameworks (recursive learnings, enacted learnings, and inquiry questions)
 8½ x 11"
4.25 MB


11 x 17"
1.32 MB

The resources can be adapted for a variety of purposes to meet different needs when designing for visual arts education. They could be used to design new courses, revise existing courses, or transform SICs into Specialized (S) designated curriculum-based arts education courses.

It is anticipated that schools will be able to transform existing arts education SICs into S-designated department-developed course codes by aligning SIC learning outcomes with the recursive learnings from the four essential learning areas in the visual arts curriculum framework.

Students can use the resources to plan inquiry projects and for self-assessment purposes. Educators may use them as part of discussions with parents/ guardians to explain and elaborate visual arts learning.