美术(měi shù) - art in Mandarin

美术 (měishù) is art as a school subject, painting, drawing and design rather than the performing arts. 美 (měi) means "beautiful" and 术 (shù) means "skill, technique, art", so the compound reads roughly as "the skill of beauty".

Don't confuse 术 (shù), the "skill, technique" in 美术, with 数 (shù), "number", from 数学 (shùxué), maths: they are exact homophones, same pinyin and same tone, distinguished only by the character on the page and by context.

美术课 (měishù kè), "art class", is the everyday phrase you will meet most, alongside 画画 (huà huà), "to draw, to paint", the ordinary verb for what actually happens in the lesson; 美术 (měishù) itself names the subject on a timetable rather than the act of drawing.