Visual and Performing Arts

About Visual Art

Students will find a passion for what they can create in the variety of art classes offered at Oxnard High School. Our Art Department includes courses in Commercial Photography, Visual Arts, Painting, 3D Sculptural Design. They will learn valuable artistic skills in various media and express themselves with their own unique style.

Paints and brushes, lying on painted background. The visual and media arts challenge and extend human experience. They provide means of expression that go beyond ordinary speaking and writing. They can express intimate thoughts and feelings. They are a unique record of diverse cultures and how these cultures have developed over time. They provide distinctive ways of understanding human beings and nature. The arts are creative modes by which all people can enrich their lives both by self-expression and response to the expression of others.​

Works of art often involve subtle meanings and complex systems of expression. Appreciating such works requires the careful reasoning and sustained study that lead to informed insight. Importantly, fully understanding the arts involves firsthand work in them. We practice the understanding that art is made up of the Elements and Principles of Art. This is how compositions are created and understood. Together with the Five Art Standards we provide skill that helps students understand the visual world around them. Each year, students have the opportunity to participate in the OUHSD District Art Show and Contest.  

About Performing Arts

The study of music and performing arts helps students to develop their potential, to give them an understanding of their own culture and the cultures of others, and to provide a unique vehicle for achieving excellence either alone or in cooperation with others. Some discover talents leading to careers in music; all will find that music enriches their lives, and that living can be much more than merely existing.