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.

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 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 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. 

This webinar and presentation is a previously recorded session, Resources from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.Webinar Description: Join VMFA educators to learn about the new opportunities, resources, and supportive measures developed by Museum staff members in response to the challenges faced by teachers, students, and parents for the 2020-2021 school year. Learn about the major exhibition Treasures of Ancient Egypt: Sunken Cities, and find out about fall opportunities for online Professional Development, distance and digital learning options, remote access to VMFA’s encyclopedic collection, and more.

In the first part of this session, Jeffrey Allison from VMFA On the Road will share works and educator resources from the traveling state-wide exhibition: A View from Home: Landscapes of Virginia. The paintings, photographs, woodblock prints, and engravings from the museum’s permanent collection represent various styles and periods. The second part of the session will focus on strategies for developing deeply engaging units for K-12 visual arts education using the exhibition as a starting point for deeper exploration. This presentation and collaborative workshop session will highlight project-based and place-based learning approaches to visual arts education.

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 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.  

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.

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.