FINE ARTS
CURRICULUM
FRAMEWORK
Mountain Brook Schools
Mountain Brook Schools
Vision
Our vision is to be a world class school system, recognized as a model for quality
education.
Mission
The mission of the Mountain Brook City Schools is to provide an educational
environment which enables each individual to reach his or her full potential.
Curriculum Goals
Goal #1: Develop and implement an effective, challenging, and engaging
curriculum which promotes the highest level of academic excellence and
personal growth for each student.
Goal #2: Ensure that each individual is prepared to become an independent,
lifelong learner.
Philosophy
The Mountain Brook Fine Arts Curriculum Committee believes that the Fine Arts have intrinsic
value and should be included in an integrated, interdisciplinary program which is effective,
challenging, and engaging.
As stated in the Alabama Course of Study for Arts Education:
The arts – dance, music, theatre, and visual arts – are among humanity’s most
ancient cultural achievements. Innate and essential elements of our human nature,
the arts shape and extend our ability to think about, manipulate, and symbolize our
world. As creative languages, the arts sharpen and extend the ability to express,
understand, and absorb feelings and ideas. Among the many building blocks of
civilization, the arts create, embody, and reveal symbolic structures, ideas, emotions,
and expressions that are only available through their specialized forms. Study of the
arts provides students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of the world
and their place in it. Through imagination, they create worlds of their own; and, as
they interact with those worlds, they create and enlarge their own humanity.
We specifically believe the following:

Integrating experiences in aesthetics, criticism, and history through
production/performance in the Fine Arts program allows every student to be exposed to
and participate in the creative process.

Participating in the Fine Arts prepares students to express themselves effectively and
confidently.

Engaging in challenging experiences in one or more of the Fine Arts disciplines enables
students to think independently, logically, and creatively in order to analyze and solve
authentic problems.

Developing appreciation of the arts is beneficial to students of all ability levels.

Learning throughout one’s lifetime is promoted through the Fine Arts program.
Goals
In order to develop well-rounded students, Mountain Brook Schools provides opportunities for
an effective, challenging, and engaging curriculum through participation in art, music, theatre,
and dance.

Students will have exposure to the Fine Arts to develop an appreciation for art, music,
theater, and dance.

Students will understand and respond to Fine Arts in the following ways
- analyzing works of art from aesthetic, historical, literary, and cultural perspectives
- recognizing influences of the arts in everyday life
- using appropriate vocabulary, materials, tools, techniques, and modern
technologies
- relating arts knowledge and skills across each discipline and other core subjects
- demonstrating familiarity with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures

Students will produce Fine Arts at a course-appropriate level when creating and
performing.