Here is a compilation of some of my favorite online resources for finding lesson plans, art ideas and images from amazing museums and art organizations. I am constantly searching and seeking out content for my students and have put all the links in one place. There is a permanent link on the RESOURCES part of this website. If you have a favorite website that has great online resources for art education, please post in a comment and we can add it to the list.
The * denotes text taken from the website description
MUSEUMS
New York, New York
The MAD has over a dozen downloadable Teacher Resource
Packets that focus on a range of topics and grade levels
based on their exhibitions. The MAD is one of my favorite museums in NYC and focuses on the ways artists and designers
transform the world around us in an intimate environment.
New York, New York
The Met has workshops and events for those who live in the area and offers online, print, and other resources in its educators section of their website.
New York, New York
Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is the
only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design.
The Museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily
life through active educational and curatorial programming.*
New York, New York
The Education Department provides materials for teachers to
help prepare students for museum visits and to assist educators in developing
classroom lessons. Online resources include Exhibition
Resource Units, a database of inquiry plans, and descriptions of curriculum-related
art projects.*
New York, New York
MOMA offers free resources and comprehensive lesson plans by subject, theme or
medium around the museums modern and contemporary art collections and special exhibitions.
New York, New York
The Whitney is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and
21st-century American art and provides teacher guides, activities
and tips around exhibitions at the museum.*
New York, New York
The Frick Collection includes masterpieces of European
painting, major works of sculpture (among them one of the finest groups of
small bronzes in the world), superb eighteenth-century French furniture and
porcelains, Old Master and nineteenth-century works on paper, Limoges
enamels, porcelains, and other works of remarkable quality. Offers online lectures, virtual tours and videos that
explore the collection.*
St. Petersburg Florida
Offers a downloadable teachers guide, which
includes painting descriptions of key works from the collection, a biography of
the artist and Dali Museum information as well as a resource list, educational
opportunities for students and school tour information.* Additionally, it has a
dozen detailed lesson plans and images you can download.
Also check out the http://www.salvador-dali.org/museus/figueres/en_index.html
The Dalí Theatre-Museum, the largest surrealistic object in
the world, occupies the building of the former Municipal Theatre, a 19th
century construction that was destroyed at the end of the Spanish Civil War. On
its ruins, Dalí decided to create his museum.*
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, PA
The museum offers online resources; detailed lesson
plans, teaching kits and great visuals for the classroom. The museum exhibits works from the Middle Ages to the Modern
period with frequent special exhibitions.*
Boston, MA
The MFA has comprehensive art collections and is
renowned for its Impressionist paintings, Asian and Egyptian collections and
early American art.
For educators they offer online resources that
include activities and videos about current and special exhibitions.*
San Diego, CA
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is focused on the
collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from
1950 to the present. The Museum’s Education Department offers a variety of
standards-based lesson plans that can be adapted for various grade levels and
subjects, utilize inexpensive materials, and promote class dialogue regarding
contemporary artists and the culture of our time.*
New York, New York
Online resources and downloadable curriculum materials on a
variety of themes around Judaism and artifacts developed by Jewish Museum Educators
in consultation with the Museum's Curators.
Washington D.C.
The Museum is a living
memorial to the Holocaust, inspiring citizens and leaders worldwide to confront
hatred and prevent genocide.* They have online resources that offer lesson plans, guidelines for teaching
about the Holocaust and online workshops.
Dayton, Ohio
For fans of aviation this is the
world's largest and oldest military aviation museum. They have virtual tours and offer downloadable
resource guides like a WWI aircraft presentation and aircraft mission symbols
guides.
Springfield, IL
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum brings to life
Abraham Lincoln’s story through immersive exhibits
and displays of original artifacts.*
Tucson, Arizona
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's Digital Library includes
a catalog of images, narrative, and scientific nomenclature of plants, animals,
minerals, and biotic communities of the Sonoran Desert region. This constantly
expanding catalog currently features 17471 images.*
Chicago, IL
The
lesson plans from The Art Institute of Chicago have been
designed to help teachers plan classroom activities that will enhance
their
students’ understanding of objects in the Art Institute of Chicago. It
features a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in
its permanent collection.*
Los Angeles, CA
Art lessons and a video gallery for grades 3–12 are
designed to help teacher’s prompt classroom discussion and learning centered on
contemporary art at the
Getty Center.* They offer a variety of lessons in a range of disciplines in an easily searchable database.
Washington, D.C.
The NGA is one of the finest
collections in the world illustrating major achievements in painting,
sculpture, and graphic arts from the Renaissance to the present day. Borrow free-loan teaching packets and DVDs or access online
lessons to bring art to your classroom, home, non-profit TV station, or other
learning setting. All materials are free.*
Washington D.C.
http://www.newseum.org/education/index.html
Newseum Blends High-Tech With Historical
One of the
top attractions in Washington, D.C., the Newseum's 250,000-square-foot news
museum offers visitors a state-of-the-art experience that blends news history
with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.*
ART CENTERS and ORGANIZATIONS
Studio in a School
New York, New York
http://www.artblueprint.org/
This
website offers free, detailed lesson plans based on the New York City
Blueprint for The Arts, which is a comprehensive guide that highlights
benchmarks in The Arts across the disciplines. Great resource with
excellent, well-written art lessons.
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Contemporary Arts Center provides the opportunity for
all people to discover the dynamic relationship between art and life by
exhibiting, but not collecting, the work of progressive artists. It will
continually increase its regional, national and international influence by
providing changing visual and interactive experiences that challenge, entertain
and educate.*
Washington D.C.
https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators.aspx
A web site for teaching and
learning in The Arts that has a variety of Arts-centered, standards-based resources aligned with
national art education standards.
The Online Lesson Library (Seasons 1-3) is a doorway to
curricular resources presenting contemporary art and artists for the classroom,
hosting a wide range of thematic lesson plans for Visual and Performing Arts,
Language Arts, and Social Studies curricula.*
Art21
Over the past
decade, Art21 has established itself as the preeminent chronicler of
contemporary art and artists through its Peabody Award-winning biennial
television series, "Art in the
Twenty-First Century." The nonprofit organization has used the power
of digital media to introduce millions of people of all ages to contemporary
art and artists and has created a new paradigm for teaching and learning about
the creative process.*
Incredible Art Department
You can find hundreds of lessons
here ranging from preschool to the college level. You can submit
lessons and search by grade level or subject with contributions from
around the
globe. Lots to search through–some lessons are great while others can be
lean towards craft projects and are not so well-written.
