Honors Visual & Performing Arts Colloquium will incorporate learning to develop skills and cultivate interest in the academic enterprise. This course will further engage students with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate Visual & Performing Arts (VAPA) curriculum. Students are required to investigate the two aspects of the portfolio, which include Selected Works and Sustained Investigation. Students will explore a personal, central interest of art as intensively as possible; they are free to work with any idea in any medium that addresses VAPA concepts. The Sustained Investigation should grow out of the student’s idea (personal inquiry) and demonstrate growth and discovery through a number of conceptually related works. Additionally, critiques are a required part of class participation. Students are expected to discuss their own work, the work of their peers, and the work of master artists in written and verbal form. During these class critiques, subject-specific vocabulary will be used to form decisions about the work. Studio Art/IB scoring guidelines will be used to evaluate work and develop ideas for future exploration and experimentation. Students will also be provided with the opportunity to develop analytical and interpretive writing skills, practicing short-answer questions as well as research-based and long essay questions similar to items on high-stakes exams (e.g. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, PSAT, SAT, CAASPP).