Visualizing the Liberal Arts was a multifaceted initiative intended to support the development of a curriculum designed to prompt students to express ideas visually and to use visual forms of evidence in argumentation.

The curricular goals of the initiative were to:

1. Heighten facility with visual inquiry, including ability to translate between verbal and visual codes, to integrate verbal and visual discourses, and to create, manipulate and use visual mental models.
2. Improve abilities to observe, describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate visual content, including the contexts in which visual materials are embedded and which mediate our understanding of what we are seeing.
3. Sharpen abilities to communicate, make arguments, present ideas, conduct research, and/or otherwise use visual materials to express ideas and knowledge, including the development of a sophisticated interdisciplinary vocabulary for describing visual matters and materials.
4. Acquire competence in using a range of technologies and techniques for creating and producing visual materials.
5. Develop acumen for understanding the ethical issues related to the manipulation and use of visual representations, including intellectual property rights and proper attribution methods for use of visual resources.