Curated OER
Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
Curated OER
Finding out about Gallery 33
While these worksheets are specific for use while visiting the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, they could be used to guide nearly any museum trip. Questions focus on human activity, symbolism, culture, religion, and society as they...
New Class Museum
Lesson: French Revolution and Visual Language of Power
Take a look at the French Revolution and neo-classic art, then compare it to current social issues and contemporary art. Kids analyze several pieces painted by Jacques-Louis David in regard to style and subject then compare them to...
Curated OER
Lesson: Urs Fischer: Your Choice: Reality or Illusion?
Young analysts write a comparative essay, but about what? They compose a paper based on several critical discussion about reality and illusion, and how both are blurred in art. They analyze several theatre pieces that exemplify Brechtian...
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: Tree of Life
Paul Chan's work has been known to show the cycle of change. Learners explore the concept of change by analyzing his work and reading the poem "For Which it Stands." They consider symbolism, communication, art, and society as they use...
Curated OER
Questions in Art History
This worksheet provides a wonderful scaffold for those learning how to analyze art in a critical and thoughtful way. It describes what art historians do, then requires learners to view and analyze one of the listed works. Twelve...
Curated OER
Lessons in Looking: Contraband in Paintings
Using the paintings On to Liberty and A Ride for Liberty, 10th graders analyze historical perspectives on life after the Civil War. They attempt to determine what the Civil War meant for free slaves, then read a paragraph highlighting...
Curated OER
Art and the Berlin Wall
Young scholars study the relationship between Cold War politics, the people who were affected by it, and the artists who examined it. They create their own "walls" using a spray paint graffiti procedure.
Curated OER
Visual Thinking Strategies
Students explore Visual Thinking Strategy as a way to examine art and photography. They discuss the strategies, and analyze and discuss photographs using the Visual Thinking Strategies techniques.
Curated OER
Small
Students research visual arts by examining a children's book. In this art identification lesson, students discuss the history of art after researching information on the Internet. Students read the book Small which discusses adjectives...
Arizona State University
Arts Work: Visual Arts Criticism
If you're looking for a complete list of art critique questions, this is the site for you! You'll find ideas for description, analysis, elements, technique, judgement, and audience.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: How to Appreciate a Painting
Christine A. Elmore's curriculum unit designed "to facilitate her third-graders' enjoyment of and response to fine art." This unit can be applied to all age groups and provides an extensive background on art in general.
Museum of Modern Art
Mo Ma: Pioneering Modern Painting: Cezanne and Pissarro (1865 85)
Exhibition brings together the work of two masters of the early modern period, Cezanne and Pissarro. Compares and contrasts their styles, choices of subject, techniques, and development, with interesting thematic pathways into the...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of African Art: Big and Small Are Tricky
An exhibition that uses African art to explain the concepts of bigness and smallness. In the world of art, big and small can refer not only to physical size but to relative size, to the impression an object makes, or to the largeness of...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Libraries:drawing From Life: Caricatures and Cartoons
A website dedicated to displaying a selection of political cartoons and caricatures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Includes biographies of many famous cartoonists and commentaries on the cartoonist's style and interests.
Other
The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge
This museum resource provides images, education resources, and a wonderful biography of artist Norman Rockwell.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Art Appreciation: Unit 2: Introduction
In this second unit of a course on Art Appreciation, students are shown how to explain what the meaning of art is, they learn about the function of art in different cultures, why so much value is placed on art and cultural items, and...
Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement
Web Exhibits: Pigments Through the Ages: Look Closer: Visible and Beyond
Illustrated explanation of the analytical work that art historians and curators perform using visible light and imaging technologies.
ArtLex
Art Lex: Constructing Sculpture
A great lesson idea! This site from Artlex walks you through a lesson on Constructing (Assemblage) sculpture. It is based upon the work of Deborah Butterfield and there are great images of some of her sculptures of horses. There is also...
Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago: Art Access: Nighthawks
View Hopper's famous "Nighthawks," along with contextual details and analysis.
Incredible Art Department
The Incredible Art Department: Looking at Art: Seeing Questions
A collection of questions to use with students for analyzing and critiquing art.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of African Art: A First Look at the Disney Tishman Collection
A survey of traditional African art in a variety of media--wood, ivory, metal, and ceramics--from an impressive collection donated to the National Museum of African Art by Walt Disney in 2005. Includes examples of masks from the Yoruba...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Director's Choice
The director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum applies her analytical skills in explaining the formal and aesthetic qualities of her favorite American masterworks from the Smithsonian's collection of American art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Symbolism
This websites provides a detailed article about symbolism in art.