Resources for looking at art

A guide to some of the best websites, activities, and print resources for building visual literacy through the study of art.

By Melissa Thibault

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Related pages

• Learning to look at art: Strategies for helping students develop visual literacy in looking at paintings and other forms of visual art.
• Asheville Art Museum: Through works of art in permanent and special exhibition, students will learn about the rich history of visual arts in North Carolina.
• Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art: This art center presents exhibits and educational programs focusing on North Carolina artists and their art.

Related topics

• Learn more about aesthetics education, arts, fine art, thinking skills, and visual literacy.

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The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.

— James Baldwin

What essential questions may be considered when you learn to look at art? Build critical thinking skills while you build visual literacy with these art-related activities.

On the Web

Eyes on Arts

A learning to look curriculum by Tom March. From "You Choose", which encourages students to make a personal connection to various artworks, to the compare and contrast activities in "Double Visions, " and elements of design in "No Fear ‘o Eras, " March’s activities are dynamic, interactive and engaging. Check out the Visual Glossary to learn more of the visual arts vocabulary necessary to discuss works of art.

My Art Gallery

Learn from looking, ask questions, research, compare, and interpret as you act as curator and build your own art exhibit. Students keep a journal about the color, line, texture, space, and shape of their selections. An animated guide steps through the process with students, examining their selected works and encouraging their progress. These are great activities that help a student understand the decisions that go into building an exhibition. Published by the Seattle Art Museum.

ArtAccess

Art Access encourages the examination of objects for style and in historical context. Objects are classified in the following categories: Ancient Indian Art of the Americas, African American Art, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Modern and Contemporary Art, American Art to 1900, and Art of India, Himalayas & Southeast Asia. Articles describe the work in context, linking throughout to a subject-specific glossary with audio pronunciation of all terms, like this glossary for the African American Art collection. Also available are arts-integrated lesson plans: Ancient American Art and Geometry (Grades 7-8 Math), Ancient Gold Working (Grades 3-5 Social Science), and Sport as Social Ritual (Grades 4-6 Social Science).

The Artist’s Toolkit: visual elements and principles

Explore the tools that artists use, such as line, color, shape, and balance, to build works of art. Experience each visual element or principle by watching an animated demonstration, finding examples of the concept in works of art from museums, and creating your own composition. Don’t miss the Artist’s Toolkit Encyclopedia.

Thinker.org ImageBase

Encourage students to collect, compare, contrast and categorize using the Gallery Online function in the ImageBase of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Search or browse 82,000 images and then select and display works in a Virtual Gallery. Once your work is saved you can send emails with links to friends and family so they can see your work.

In Print

Visit the library and look for Eye Spy: An Alphabet in Art or I Spy Two Eyes: Numbers in Art by Lucy Micklethwait. Examine the works of art to discover an object beginning with that letter of the alphabet or count your way through great works of art. Either way, the youngest students are exposed to a variety of fine art while building visual skills and working with numbers and letters!

I am an Artist by Pat Lowery Collins celebrates the world we see and encourages children to see beauty in the natural world around them. This title is also available for download in electronic format from eBookMall.com.

Research

Visual thinking strategies can be assessed and taught. Research in this area is based upon a theory of aesthetic development by Abigail Housen. Ms. Housen has identified five distinct patterns of thinking about art which she described as aesthetic stages. Where are you (or your students) in your aesthetic development? For more information see VTS Research and Theory and Thoughts on Visual Literacy (in PDF format) by Philip Yenawine.