This resource provides a menu of self-directed art-making challenges, each of which relates to a work of art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection. Give your students voice and choice as they investigate authentic works of art and work to develop a visual language, convey complex ideas, and solve problems creatively.    

Artists across all times and places take advantage of local materials and resources to craft their work. At the same time, the local habitat influences and inspires artistic decisions. Broken into six thematic lenses, this collection of objects lets students use art to expand their own thinking about the complex relationship humans have with the natural world. What ideas about humanity, habitat, and creativity do these objects spark for them?

A focus object is featured for each thematic lens and is followed by other objects for extended thinking and consideration. As students investigate, encourage them to document their thinking by using the prompts and strategies provided.

Students explore 19th-century photographer Edward Curtis's documentation of a ritual performed by Native Americans. They then consider how ceremony and ritual practice are depicted and understood by those outside of a religious culture. Students use photography to document their own religious or spiritual rituals, and then examine one another's images and interpret their peers' spiritual beliefs based on the photographs.

Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. As such, the text is organized around anthropological concepts such as language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities.