TL;DR: The Arts and Design track is one of DepEd's four Senior High School tracks. All students take six shared foundational subjects covering arts appreciation, performing arts, personal development, Filipino identity, design principles, and leadership in the arts, then specialize in Theater, Music, Dance, Visual Arts, Media Arts, or Literary Arts. It feeds college courses like Fine Arts, Multimedia Arts, Architecture, and Industrial Design. Few schools offer it, most require a talent assessment or portfolio, and creative-career pay in the Philippines varies widely: entry-level Multimedia Arts and Animation graduates typically start around ₱18,000-₱25,000 a month, while traditional fine arts, theater, dance, and music income depends heavily on freelance or project work that isn't tracked as consistently as salaried professions.
The Arts and Design track is the least common of DepEd's four Senior High School tracks, and information about it online is thinner than what exists for STEM, ABM, or HUMSS. This guide lays out exactly what DepEd's curriculum requires, the six specialization areas students choose from, which schools actually run the track, the college courses it feeds, and an honest look at what creative careers pay in the Philippines. For the full picture of how Arts and Design fits alongside the other three tracks, start with our SHS tracks and strands hub guide.
What Is the Arts and Design Track?
The Arts and Design track is one of DepEd's four Senior High School tracks, alongside Academic (STEM, ABM, HUMSS, GAS), Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL), and Sports. It is built for students pursuing a creative or performing-arts career and is structured differently from the other tracks: rather than splitting into four named strands the way Academic and TVL do, students complete a shared set of foundational subjects and then choose one of several specialization areas.
Fewer schools run this track than Academic or TVL, since it typically requires dedicated arts faculty, studio or performance space, and often a portfolio or audition process that adds administrative overhead most general high schools don't take on.
What Subjects Do You Take in Arts and Design?
Per DepEd's official curriculum guide, every Arts and Design student completes six shared foundational subjects before specializing:
| Subject | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Creative Industries I — Arts and Design Appreciation and Production | Foundational exposure to arts and design as a field and industry |
| Creative Industries II — Performing Arts | Introduction to performance-based art forms |
| Physical and Personal Development in the Arts | Physical conditioning and personal discipline specific to arts practice |
| Developing Filipino Identity in the Arts | Filipino cultural context and identity within artistic work |
| Integrating the Elements and Principles of Organization in the Arts | Core design and composition principles applied across art forms |
| Leadership and Management in Different Arts Fields | Managing creative projects, teams, and arts-related enterprises |
After these six subjects, students choose a specialization area and take further subjects specific to it, ending in a capstone: either a performance production or an exhibit, depending on the specialization chosen.
Disclaimer: DepEd curriculum details can be updated by memorandum, and not every school running the Arts and Design track offers every specialization below. Confirm current subject offerings with your specific school.
The Six Arts and Design Specialization Areas
After the shared foundational subjects, students specialize in one of the following areas, per DepEd's curriculum documentation:
- Theater — acting, directing, stagecraft, and production for live performance.
- Music — performance, composition, or music production, depending on the school's specific offering.
- Dance — choreography and performance across dance disciplines.
- Visual Arts — drawing, painting, sculpture, and related traditional visual media.
- Media Arts — digital and screen-based creative work, including photography, video, and digital design.
- Literary Arts — creative writing focused on literary forms, distinct from HUMSS's Creative Writing subject, which sits inside a broader humanities sequence rather than a full arts specialization.
Some schools and secondary sources group Visual Arts and Media Arts together as a single "Media Arts and Visual Arts" specialization; naming conventions vary slightly between DepEd documents and individual school prospectuses, so confirm with your target school exactly how it structures the specialization you want.
Which Schools Offer the Arts and Design Track?
Availability is genuinely limited. Arellano University in Manila is a verified example on SchoolFinderPH that runs the Arts and Design track alongside STEM, ABM, HUMSS, GAS, Sports, and multiple TVL strands, making it one of the broader SHS offerings in Metro Manila.
The country's flagship dedicated arts school is the Philippine High School for the Arts in Mt. Makiling, Los Baños, Laguna, established under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. It operates as a specialized public arts high school in its own right rather than a track option inside a general high school, and it is highly selective, admitting students through a national talent search rather than ordinary SHS enrollment.
Beyond these two, availability depends heavily on region and school type. Because the track is uncommon, always confirm directly with a specific school, rather than assuming a nearby high school runs it, before planning around it.
What College Courses Does Arts and Design Lead To?
Arts and Design graduates commonly continue into:
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) or similar Fine Arts degrees, a natural extension of the Visual Arts specialization.
- BA Multimedia Arts, extending the Media Arts specialization into digital design, animation, and game art.
- BS Architecture and BS Industrial Design, which reward the design-principles foundation from Integrating the Elements and Principles of Organization in the Arts, especially for students who specialized in Visual Arts.
- BA Theater Arts, Music, or Dance degree programs, direct continuations of the Theater, Music, and Dance specializations.
None of these college courses legally require the Arts and Design track. STEM, HUMSS, and GAS graduates are admitted into all of them regularly, usually through a portfolio review or audition rather than a strand requirement. What the Arts and Design track provides is two years of structured practice and a body of work, which can matter more at audition-based admissions than the SHS track label itself.
What Do Creative Careers Actually Pay?
Pay for Arts and Design-aligned careers varies more than almost any other SHS track, and reliable national wage data is thinner here than for teaching, engineering, or nursing. The clearest verified figure available comes from the digital and commercial side of the field: entry-level BS Multimedia Arts and Animation graduates typically start around ₱18,000-₱25,000 per month, with experienced animation and game-design professionals earning significantly more, particularly when working with international clients, since the Philippine animation industry increasingly serves overseas studios.
Traditional fine arts, theater, dance, and music careers depend heavily on freelance work, project-based contracts, gallery representation, or production-specific pay, none of which national wage surveys track as consistently as salaried office or government roles. A working visual artist's or musician's income realistically spans from near-zero in early years to substantial for established names, with far less of a predictable ladder than a licensed profession like teaching or nursing.
Disclaimer: creative-industry pay is unusually variable and project-dependent. Treat the multimedia arts figure above as a directional entry-level range, not a guarantee, and verify current rates with actual job postings or industry associations before planning around a specific number.
Deciding If Arts and Design Is Right for You
- Confirm you have a genuine baseline interest or skill first. The track's specialization subjects build on existing practice; students without prior exposure to their chosen art form often struggle to keep pace.
- Check the audition or portfolio requirements early. Many schools screen applicants before enrollment, so prepare a portfolio, demo reel, or audition piece well ahead of the application period.
- Weigh income variability honestly, especially for the traditional fine arts, theater, dance, and music paths, where income is far less predictable than in licensed professions.
- Consider whether HUMSS or GAS might serve you better if you are interested in the arts but not ready to specialize this early; both keep a creative college course fully open without requiring an audition-based SHS track.
- If you are set on the digital/design side (Multimedia Arts, Media Arts, Animation), the Arts and Design track's Media Arts specialization gives a genuine head start over students without SHS-level exposure to design principles and production workflow.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools and filter for SHS tracks and strands, including Arts and Design, across hundreds of Philippine schools on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- DepEd — Arts and Design Track (official K-12 curriculum page)
- DepEd — Creative Industries I: Arts and Design Appreciation and Production curriculum guide (official PDF)
- DepEd — Arts and Design Track: Exhibit for Arts Production, Media Arts, and Visual Arts curriculum guide (official PDF)
- TeacherPH — List of Specialized Subjects in the Arts and Design Track
- SchoolFinderPH — Most In-Demand Courses in the Philippines (BS Multimedia Arts and Animation salary data)
- SchoolFinderPH — Best SHS Strand for Job Demand
- SchoolFinderPH — SHS Tracks and Strands Explained
