Curated OER
Jazz Talk
Middle schoolers analyze the origins of jazz music by examining work songs, spirituals, blues, and gospel songs as well as works of poetry from African American artists. They create their own poems from either the narrative, dramatic,...
PBS
Art21: Kara Walker
This artist is best known for exploring the themes of race, gender, and sexuality through silhouetted figures created by light projection.
PBS
Art21: Martin Puryear
Puryear?s monumental objects and public installations are made in wood, stone, tar, wire, and various metals. He was a self-trained craftsman before becoming an artist and relies heavily on his earlier trade within his current work.
Other
Pdn and Kodak Professional: Gordon Parks: Memories Left Behind
Offers an overview into the life of well known writer, composer, photojournalist, and artist, Gordon Parks. Included is a gallery of images, a brief biography, and video clips of selected interviews.
Other
C.w. Post Campus: African Americans Art on the Internet
Many links to galleries, African American artists, African art and museums with collections from African American artists are provided.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Romare Bearden: Let's Walk the Block
A fantastic site that allows you to zoom in on one of Bearden's pieces. See his famous collages up close. Get information on the artist and discover his inspiration. Includes further activities for teachers.
Crayola
Crayola: Bold and Bright in Harlem (Lesson Plan)
This lesson plan incorporates art into a social studies or language arts class. Students create their own pictures, using the work of Harlem Renaissance artists as inspiration. Also provides resources and adaptations to try with this...
Other
Whitney Museum: Jacob Lawrence: Exploring Stories
A look at Jacob Lawrence and his art, and instructions on how to make your own tempera paints and "paint your own story," using Lawrence's work as inspiration.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Marching, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This resource by the National Humanities Center discusses the role of physical protest in the civil rights movement. Its primary focus, the print "Freedom Now," by Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), depicts the massing of bodies in the name of...
Library of Congress
Loc: Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's
A great site about Robert Blackburn's Printmaking workshops in existence since the 1940's. A Great bio on Blackburn as well as information on the exhibition at the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Mosaic: Wpa
A short description with primary source examples of the aid African American artists received from the WPA.
Museum of Modern Art
Mo Ma: Martin Puryear
Visit the online home of a 30-year retrospective of sculptor Martin Puryear's work, which opened at the Museum of Modern Art in November 2007. Includes essays, images, and videos of the installation.
Other
Abc: Abstraction
Alma Woodsey Thomas is the focus of this lesson plan that introduces students to abstract art. Students will come to understand how the art elements can be used to express emotion and communicate ideas without including objects in the...
Other
Amistad Digital Resource: Harlem Renaissance
Read about the Harlem Renaissance, the 1920s rebirth of African American arts centered in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: A Journey Through Art With w.h. Johnson
Discover one of our nation's great African American artists. See images of his colorful work and try out some of the suggested activities coupled with each piece.
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Daguerreotypes by Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington, son of a former slave, learned to make daguerreotypes in 1843 to offset his college expenses, during his freshman year at Dartmouth College. Biographical notes and details about his work are provided in an annotated...
Other
The Art of Kadir Nelson: The Artist
Learn about the career of illustrator and artist Kadir Nelson, whose work has been featured in films, children's books and major museums.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Renee Stout
As part of the Smithsonian Art Museum's database of artists, this site provides biographical information on Renee Stout in addition to an extensive listing of her works as displayed at the museum.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: William H. Johnson's World on Paper
Information about William H. Johnson's life and artistic styles with images of his work.
Other
Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance
An online exhibit of representative art from the Harlem Renaissance.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Brown, View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
The falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Grafton Tyler Brown depicts the Grand Canyon, the one found at Yellowstone in Wyoming. Grafton Brown was one of the first African-American artists to depict scenes of the West. View...
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Beverly Buchanan
African American artist Beverly Buchanan recreates colorful scenes from her childhood. Read her biography and see some of her work.
Other
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: Artists: Charles White
A brief biography of African American artist Charles White. Includes examples of his artworks.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: African American Artists, 1929?1945
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this website provides an online version of an exhibition heralding the works of famous African-American artists.