Grade by Grade
B. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing · Responding to Art: Critical Analysis, Context and Responsible Practice

Art, Identity and Values

B2.3About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain how viewing art can confirm, challenge or change values.
  • I can explain how creating art helps me discover and express my identity.
  • I can question media images that promote narrow ideals.
  • I can reflect on how a specific art work has affected me.

Words to know

identity
Your sense of who you are, built from many layers: personal, family, community, culture and the wider world.
values
Beliefs about what is important.
empathy
Understanding and sharing another person's feelings and point of view.
visual literacy
The ability to read, question and create images thoughtfully.
stereotype
An oversimplified, often unfair idea about a group of people.
symbolic self-portrait
A self-portrait that uses symbols to show identity, not just appearance.

Hook: the poster on your wall

Think of a poster, an album cover, a logo or an image you chose to put on your wall, your phone background or your backpack. Why that one? Chances are it says something about who you are or what you care about.

Art doesn't just reflect society; it shapes people. B2.3 asks you to explain how creating and viewing art has affected your personal identity and values.

What are identity and values?

  • Identity is your sense of who you are: your interests, experiences, family, community, culture, language, beliefs and hopes. It has many layers and keeps developing.
  • Values are the things you believe are important: fairness, family, honesty, creativity, the environment, faith, friendship, freedom.

Art connects to both. Making art helps you discover and express your identity. Viewing art can confirm, challenge or change your values.

WorldCultureCommunityFamilyMeMe:interests, skills, feelingsFamily:stories, traditions, recipesCommunity:school, team, town, faithCulture:language, heritage, symbolsWorld:global issues, media, online
Identity has layers, from the personal to the global. Art can draw on, and affect, every layer.

How viewing art can shape values

  • Empathy: art lets you see through someone else's eyes. Annie Pootoogook's drawings of daily life in Kinngait, for example, invite viewers in the South to see Inuit life as Inuit artists see it, not through stereotypes.
  • Awareness: environmental photography, posters and installations can make a problem visible and push people to act.
  • Pride and belonging: seeing your own culture, language or community in art (in a gallery, on a mural, in a book) can strengthen your sense of belonging.
  • Critical thinking about media: not all images have positive effects. Advertising and filtered photos can promote narrow ideas about beauty, success or what is "normal". Visual literacy lets you notice and question those messages instead of absorbing them.
Seeart workFeel andthinkQuestionbeliefsValuesshiftActdifferentlyExample: a photo series about plastic on a Lake Ontario beach → shock →“Is my water bottle part of this?” → caring about waste → bringing a reusable bottle
How viewing art can lead to a change in values and actions. Not every work changes values, but powerful ones can.

How creating art shapes identity

Making art is a way of figuring out who you are:

  • A self-portrait forces you to decide what to include: your face, your interests, symbols of your heritage, your hopes.
  • Learning a traditional art form from family or community (beadwork, quilting, pysanky, calligraphy, carving) can connect you to your heritage. Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit youth today learn art forms from Elders and family members, strengthening language and culture.
  • Creating art about an issue clarifies what you believe and gives you a voice.
  • Finishing difficult work builds confidence and perseverance.
Worked example

Let's reflect on how a work changed values

Leila saw a photo series at her local library: portraits of people who use the town's food bank, with short quotes from each person.

  1. Before: "I thought food bank users were a small, different group from me."
  2. Viewing: "The portraits showed a student, a grandfather, a nurse and a family with a baby. The quotes sounded like people I know."
  3. Analysis: "The photographer used close-up portraits and eye contact, so I felt like each person was talking to me."
  4. Change in values: "I realized anyone can need help. I value dignity and fairness more now."
  5. Action: "I organized a food drive in my homeroom for Thanksgiving."

A strong reflection names the before, the specific visual choices that had an effect, the value that changed, and any action that followed.

Worked example

Let's reflect on how making art shaped identity

Mateo made a mixed-media self-portrait for his visual arts class.

  1. Choices: he drew his face in pencil and surrounded it with collage: a map of his family's home city in Chile, a hockey puck, lyrics he wrote, and his grandmother's handwriting from a recipe card.
  2. Discovery: "I had to ask my grandmother about the recipe. She told me stories I'd never heard about her childhood."
  3. Identity: "I realized I'm proud to be both Chilean and Canadian; I don't have to choose."
  4. Values: "Family stories matter. I want to keep learning Spanish."

Creating art is not just showing who you are; it can change how you understand yourself.

Writing about identity safely

You decide what to share. Personal art can be private (a sketchbook) or public (a show). You never have to include something you're not comfortable sharing, and you should get permission before including other people's photos, stories or words.

Just for fun

Funny but true: the Dutch painter Rembrandt made dozens of self-portraits over his life, from a curly-haired young man to an old man. He basically took selfies for 40 years, without a phone.

Hands-on activity

Identity map and symbolic self-portrait

You need: paper, pencils, coloured pencils or markers, a mirror, and optional magazines, family photos (copies, with permission), scissors and glue (a grown-up should supervise scissors).

  1. Draw your own identity layers diagram. Fill each ring with 2 or 3 words or tiny sketches.
  2. Choose four symbols from different rings that you'd like to include in a self-portrait.
  3. Using a mirror, draw your face lightly in pencil (or draw just your hands, or your shadow, if you prefer).
  4. Arrange your four symbols around or inside the portrait. Think about size, placement and colour to show what matters most.
  5. Write a reflection: Which symbol was hardest to choose? Did making this change how you see yourself?
  6. Separately, write about one art work, ad, music video or image that changed your values, using the before/viewing/change/action structure.

Your turn

1

Define identity and values.

2

Name three ways viewing art can affect values.

3

How can learning a traditional art form affect identity?

4

Give an example of an image that might promote a narrow or unrealistic idea.

5

In Leila's example, which visual choices affected her?

6

Why should you get permission before using someone else's photo or story in your art?

More practice: warm-up

1

True or false: identity never changes.

2

Name two values.

3

What is a self-portrait?

4

Name the five layers in the identity diagram.

5

Who made dozens of self-portraits over about 40 years?

More practice: on your own

1

Explain how Annie Pootoogook's drawings can build empathy and challenge stereotypes.

2

Describe a time a song, film or art work changed how you thought about something.

3

How can creating art about an issue clarify your values?

4

Why is visual literacy important when you scroll through social media?

5

Pick one symbol for each of three identity layers about yourself and explain each.

Challenge

1

Can art reinforce harmful values as well as challenge them? Give an example and explain.

2

Write a paragraph explaining how one art work you made this year reflects your identity, and how making it affected you.

3

A company uses a First Nations-style design on products without permission. How might this affect the identity and values of community members and of buyers?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Values are...

2.

Which is an example of art building empathy?

3.

Learning a traditional art form from an Elder can...

4.

Why does visual literacy matter online?

5.

Which is the strongest reflection on how art changed your values?

6.

Before including a friend's photo in your art, you should...

For parents and teachers

Big idea: B2.3 asks students to describe how creating and viewing art works has affected their personal identity and values. Reflection here is personal: students choose what to share.

How to help: Share an art work, song or photo that changed your thinking, and why. Help gather family stories or traditions for the self-portrait if your child wants.

Sensitive note: identity can involve family history, culture, faith, gender or personal struggles. Let your child decide what to include, and keep personal work private if they prefer. Discussions of body image in media should focus on questioning the image, never on anyone's body.

Common difficulties: vague reflections ("it made me think"); not naming the visual choices that had an effect.