The 2020 Revisions to the Colorado Academic Standards in Visual Arts provide an organizational framework acknowledging the importance and the complexities of teaching and learning in the visual arts. This document is written with the following underlying beliefs: (1) The visual arts are an academic and scholarly discipline defined by theoretical frameworks connecting learning, critical thinking and making; (2) The nature of the visual arts discipline is formative, iterative and has different purposes within various contexts; (3) The standards identify various components of art making that may occur simultaneously; and (4) The importance of students' personal stories and individual expression in artmaking are influenced by one's environment and communities and are reinforced in the visual art standards.