Advanced Placement Studio Art is not based on a written examination; instead, students submit portfolios for evaluation at the end of the school year. Since no standard, universally valid studio art course can or should exist, the Development Committee in Advanced Placement Studio Art has chosen to suggest guidelines for the submission of an AP portfolio rather than to delineate a specific course. The portfolios are designed to allow freedom in structuring AP Studio Art courses while keeping in mind that the quality and breadth of the work should reflect first-year college-level standards. Therefore, the major responsibility for creating an AP course in art and preparing work to submit or evaluation belongs to the participating teachers and students.
The Development Committee in AP Studio Art has had the council of both school and college teachers in defining the scope of work that would be equivalent to that of introductory college courses in studio art. Because art courses vary from college to college, the guidelines provided for AP Studio Art are not intended to describe the program of any particular institution, but to reflect the coverage and level typical of good introductory college courses.
AP courses should address three major concerns that are constants in the teaching of art:
- 1. A sense of quality in the student's work
- 2. The student's concentration on a particular visual interest or problem
- 3. The student's need for breadth of experience in the formal, technical, and expressive means of the artist.
AP work should reflect these three areas of concern: quality, concentration, and breadth.
The AP Program in Studio Art is intended for highly motivated students who are seriously interested in the study of art. Most AP students will probably have had previous training in art, but such training is not a prerequisite for entering the program any more than it is for entering the introductory course in college. Students should, however, be made aware that AP work involves significantly more commitment and accomplishment than the typical high school course and that the program is not for the casually interested.The quest for quality of both production and experience in the AP Program in Studio Art makes active demands not only on the students but also on the teachers and on the school itself. Ideally, classes should be small enough to permit teachers and students to work in close cooperation, extended blocks of time should be allotted for instruction, and the teachers' other responsibilities should be reduced to reflect the greater demands of the program. However, since few situations are ideal, the course has been taught in many different ways: for example, as a separate, one-year class; as a separate program of study for AP students who meet during a general art class period; as independent study for a few highly motivated students. The introductory college course usually meets for three two-hour sessions a week, and such a schedule is preferable to the five one-hour sessions a week typical of high school. Because the course is designed as an intensive one-year program and requires more time than traditional offerings, some schools may prefer to extend it over two years. In such cases, the most recently published AP Studio Art poster, detailing current requirements for each of the portfolios, should be consulted at the beginning of the school year of the course so that any changes in the evaluation materials required can be taken into account well before the materials are to be submitted.
Students will need to work outside the classroom, as well as in it, and beyond schedule periods. Students should be considered responsible enough to leave the art room or school if an assignment requires them to do so, and homework, such as maintaining a sketch book or a journal, is probably a necessary component of instruction. Where museums and galleries are accessible, teachers are encouraged to use them as extensions of school and to allot class time accordingly. In addition, art books, slides, and reproductions can provide important examples for the serious study of art.
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