Spending time with a work of art can be an opportunity for …
Spending time with a work of art can be an opportunity for thoughtful inquiry and ideation. For students, documenting their ideas as they work to interpret an artwork offers the chance to exercise metacognition. With this interactive exercise featuring an artwork from the Mughal Empire, students can gain insight into how they process information and formulate ideas. This activity is good practice for formulating research questions and synthesizing ideas.
What does leadership look like? Explore VMFA’s African Art collection to see …
What does leadership look like? Explore VMFA’s African Art collection to see how different cultures define and visualize the qualities of a leader. This resource brings together selected works from VMFA’s collections that relate to the theme of Leadership in African Art. Suggested inquiry-based activities are paired with each object and can be used in the galleries or classroom to promote discovery, critical thinking, and authentic engagement with art.
Students practice engaging with art, making meaning from that interaction, and considering …
Students practice engaging with art, making meaning from that interaction, and considering how art can connect us to people and ideas across time and place. Use this before a museum visit to set the stage for a rich in-gallery experience that is inquiry-based.
Structure this simple activity in a way that makes sense for your class. Make a game of it, use written responses to augment discussion, frame it in the lens of your academic discipline, etc.
This simple, scaffolded discussion activity fosters creative and critical thinking and communication skills. Citizenship skills are encouraged as well: making personal connections with art, students are invited to extending these ideas by considering the common and divergent values of the whole group.
Use this resource set to guide young learners as they explore and …
Use this resource set to guide young learners as they explore and interpret a diverse group of six artworks from the Virginia Museum of Arts collection.
Under the "suggested activities" menu next to each artwork, you will find link to an educator-led "Little Eyes Look" video. Using an inquiry-based approach that fosters curiosity and creative thinking, educators introduce viewers to vocabulary related to both art-making and the subjects depicted in the artworks. Students consider artistic intention and decision-making and are supported by factual content about artists's lives and art-making practices.
Three open-ended engagement activities are also suggested with each work. These simple exercises can be used to foster extended thinking about each piece.
Using the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts website, students explore the sculptural …
Using the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts website, students explore the sculptural work of 20th Century Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt to expand their understanding of geometric concepts, creatively play with mathematical ideas, and be inspired to make art of their own.
The website page provides a scaffolded approach to exploring Sol LeWitt's sculpture titled "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6." culminating in a challenge for students to build a 3-D Tinkercad model of a geometry concept of their own choosing.
Shared narratives can be found in art from many cultures and throughout …
Shared narratives can be found in art from many cultures and throughout time. Use this resource to encourage students to explore diverse narratives, discover their own personal narrative, and express that narrative through their own work of art.Using provided engagment strategies students are able to hone Critical, Creative, and Communication skills using works of art in the Virginia Museum of Arts collection. Discussion prompts and activities offer instructional oppotunities for building Collaboration and Citizenship skills.
Explore objects from Ancient Rome and discover how Romans portrayed themselves and …
Explore objects from Ancient Rome and discover how Romans portrayed themselves and wished to be remembered. This student-facing resource includes text, images, maps, as well as interactive exercises that call invite students to closely examine authentic objects from Ancient Rome.
The first three activities provide close-up views with guiding questions and background information. What will you learn about the connections between power, status, citizenship, and images in ancient Rome? How do these objects relate to identity and how people are portrayed or remembered? Who is represented and who is not?
The next three investigations offer pop-up hot spots on selected objects to reveal intriguing information about Roman culture, gods, goddesses, and mythology.
How do these objects relate to what the Romans thought was important?
Why look at art? Art is one way humans communicate ideas to …
Why look at art? Art is one way humans communicate ideas to one another. Sifting through the information art presents takes careful and purposeful looking. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a resource that can foster close-looking and thoughtful analysis of artworks from any period or culture. Use this resource (see link) to practice looking at art before a visit to the art museum or to document thinking about art as a primary source of insight into a culture or time period. Included in this resource are: a) Works of art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a link to find more.b) Simple framework and prompts to help students document their analysis and thinking. c) Discussion prompts.
Use artworks as a laboratory for communication skills across the curriculum! This …
Use artworks as a laboratory for communication skills across the curriculum! This activity fosters meta-cognition by challenging students to gather and communicate crucial information. It also encourages close observation, problem-solving, synthesizing, critical thinking, and collaboration.
In this Thematic Exploration, students will explore the different ways artists represent …
In this Thematic Exploration, students will explore the different ways artists represent individuals in portraits. They will learn to gather clues about the time period in which the portrait was created, the lives of the subjects, and the thoughts of the artists.
Using portraits from the VMFA's collection, students will explore the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of portraiture. Guiding questions are woven throughout the activity, alongside a close examination of seven different portraits from a variety of different eras and cultures. Students are encouraged to observe, interpret, analyze, and reflect thoughtfully in each step. This activity also includes summative reflection questions to wrap up the conversation, as well as an optional "Create Your Own Portrait" activity.
Trans-regional exchange through routes such as the Silk Road across Asia to …
Trans-regional exchange through routes such as the Silk Road across Asia to the Mediterranean basin, maritime routes across the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and Trans-Saharan routes across North Africa allowed groups of people to exchange goods, knowledge, and ideas. Conflict and cooperation, economic pressures and political alliances, as well as conquest, migration, and trade have all resulted in rich cultural interchange. Use this resource set to explore how art can illustrate various ways in which technologies, forms, images, symbols, beliefs and concepts are adopted, adapted, and/or reinterpreted by communities across the globe until 1500.
Ten works of art from Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are presented with contextual information. Suggested inquiry-based activities paired with each object can be used in the galleries or classroom to promote discovery, critical thinking, and authentic engagement with art.
Use this resource to help students explore the human experience across time …
Use this resource to help students explore the human experience across time and place, give voice to diverse perspectives found in art, and collaboratively reimagine a museum that presents a new story centered around our shared human interactions.
Artists throughout time have come to their work with stories to tell, …
Artists throughout time have come to their work with stories to tell, concepts to explore, and puzzles to work out. By looking at works of art with a curious and investigative eye, students may connect with these artistic ideas while exercising creative and critical thinking skills. This resource pairs objects from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection with simple engagement activities to help students thoughtfully consider and unpack the big ideas each artwork presents.
Are you or your students curious about how museum curators do their …
Are you or your students curious about how museum curators do their jobs? With this video, join gallery educator Maggie McGurn as she visits with Curator of Ancient Art, Dr. Peter Schertz to learn the story of one special object and examine its place in the museum collection. Along the way, gain some insight into how curators work, how galleries are designed, and how you can enjoy art in a museum setting.
Ready, Set, EXPLORE! Use this guide to lead students on an exploration …
Ready, Set, EXPLORE! Use this guide to lead students on an exploration of ancient Egyptian culture! Six works of art are presented with contextual information and suggested activities to spark inquiry-based exploration of each object.
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