The Visual Arts Department has a long history of offering a diverse and outstanding program for all students in the Visual Arts. The Department is staffed with 13 highly qualified certified Art Educators to serve the diverse community of the Somerville Public Schools. The curriculum and teaching program is based on National and State standards for teaching Visual Arts to students in grades K-12. The District offers a balanced and sequential Visual Art education program in grades K-8 and 9-12 that fosters student learning through perception and skills in both the real and the imaginary worlds that surrounds their educational development. The instructional program is focused on creative problem solving and creative and aesthetic learning that motivates and stimulates the imagination of each individual student. The use of diverse media in the Visual Arts encourages students to demonstrate self-expression, creative growth, discovery, and the realization of ideas and exposure to global cultures.

Students are assessed on their individual achievement which is relative to the diverse stages of the student's individualized growth and development in the Visual Arts. The Visual Art program is sequential and cumulative which enables all students to develop skills in the arts; make aesthetic judgments about their own art and the art works of others both past and present; and to prepare for careers and opportunities in the Visual Arts for the present and in the future.