Art and Architecture Resources

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Go to Page Index Art Art is not just about learning to draw, paint or sculpt. It is about visual literacy. Learning how to look and how to see is crucial to our appreciation and understanding of everything. Art is also an often-overlooked primary resource when learning history. For example, when I was teaching my sons about the Civil War, I opened a book of Winslow Homer's early paintings, and showed my kids what a soldier's campsite really looked like, painted by someone who had been standing right there. When we visited the Egyptian galleries at the Metropolitan Museum, we learned about children in that ancient culture by carefully "reading" the tomb paintings. If you want to know what games children played in the Middle Ages, look at the paintings of Breughel, who lived in that era. Learning how to see, and how to discover history through art, is only part of the fun. Art is also about experiencing creativity and expressing oneself. Here are some delightful websites that will help your children do just that. Architecture Architecture is art in visible and usable form. From a new condo block to an ancient cathedral, architecture is all around us. Back to index Become a published artist (or author)! Launch Pad is an online magazine publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, and artwork by children ages 6-12. Check out their submission guidelines. Back to top Page Index Art Resources Art Lessons, websites, and more Art Supplies Art Museums, databases, etc. Art History Websites etc. about Specific Artists and Art Movements Architecture Resources See also: Activities & Crafts: Painting Art from Laurie Spigel's Art Classes What's Free or Cheap in NYC - Art What's Free or Cheap in NYC - Phys. Ed. for walking tours that look at the architecture of New York Grade Levels, Standards and Benchmarks

Art Lessons, websites, and more

Laurie Spigel offers classes in art history for kids. See some Art from Laurie Spigel's Art Classes.

• Krokotak has oodles family art activities and printables, educational activities.
• Ideas for introducing art to the kids from K and older.
• Artist Daily offers free Pencil Sketch Drawing Lessons and free eBooks on figure, perspective, photo reference, and more.
• City Art Lab has a FREE afterschool art program for teens in collaboration with City College of New York. Teens build an art portfolio while working with outstanding teaching artists. Ateacher or adult mentor must recommend you by e-mailing a recommendation to: ccnycityartlab@gmail.com. For more information, contact Marit Dewhurst at City College of New York: (212) 650-7433 or e-mail ccnycityartlab@gmail.com.
• Creative Arts Workshops for Kids
• Eyebeam's After-School Digital Art Program offers free workshops every Thursday, 3-6 p.m. Workshops start at 4 p.m. Students can participate in a hands-on workshop, focusing on audio mixing and editing, video production, video game design, or other software based activities. Students who drop-in will then continue to work on skills learned, or other computer-based projects on following Thursdays.
  
  Participating students will have full supervised use of Eyebeam’s Mac lab, which includes: Apple Intel G5 computers loaded with software including Adobe’s Creative Suite, Final-Cut Pro, and more.Home schooled students are welcome to participate in the youth drop-in program as long as they are between the ages of 13–18.
  
  Location: Eyebeam is located at 34 35th St, 5th fl, Unit 26, Brooklyn. Subway directions: take the D, N, or R trains to 36 St, and walk along 35th Street. Eyebeam is on the left near the waterfront.
• Test your knowledge of artists and their works at FreeRice, an altruistic site, fun for kids to play at home.
• Frick Collection programs for students. After-school and weekend programs for middle and high school students with an exceptional interest in the arts. Classes are free, but online registration is required.
• The Joan Mitchell Foundation Art Education Program offers free Saturday art classes taught by artist-teachers for students 8-18 years, in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan in Soho and the Upper West Side. For details and an application you can download, go to JMF Art Education Program. All materials are supplied.
• Art Games
• Art Resources for kids and parents from Princeton University.
• Free Art Classes for Tweens & Teens at The Jewish Museum
  1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 423.3200.
• Red Studio, a website for teens from the Museum of Modern Art, explores issues and questions raised by teens about modern art, today's working artists, and what goes on behind the scenes at a museum. E-cards, a contest, and more.
• ArtsEdge, a great resource from the Kennedy Center and Marco Polo.
• The Arts Standards from NYS Board of Education.
• Curriculum Resources from the Ggggenheim Museum.
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards. The author has some other great books and offers classes and workshops as well on her website.
• Incredible Art Dept. from Princeton Online -- art and history lessons for every culture and time period, with loads of free lesson plans and activities for every grade level.
• KinderArt.com. A great resource of ideas, articles, etc.
• Learn How to Draw offers free drawing lessons online.
• Cowdisley Group - free drawing and painting lessons online.
• Art Education. Free lesson plans etc. from Educational CyberPlayground.
• A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius. Animated lessons in art.
• Explore Art, a website about Himalayan art

Art Supplies

• Blick Art Materials, 1-5 Bond Street, New York, NY 10012, Phone: (212) 533-2444, and online catalog. Visit their coupon page
• Lee's Art Shop, 220 West 57th St., (between Broadway & 7th Ave.), New York, NY 10019, (212) 247-0110.
• Pearl - several stores in the New York area, and online catalog.
• Playdough recipe.

Art Museums etc.

Every museum has its own website. Google a search for the art and the culture or the country you are looking for, and you might get to peek at the collections of the Prado in Madrid, or take a virtual tour of the Louvre in Paris, or visit the famous Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

See also What's Free or Cheap in NYC - Art.

• British Museum (England) – Database – Education
• Louvre (France) – Database – Under-30s
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) – Database – Teen Programs (11-18)
• The National Gallery of Art in Washington has a great loan program. They mail you materials, which you may keep for at least 3 weeks, and up to a year for some things. All you pay is the return postage, media rate, usually about $5. They have slides, some reprints, videos and CDs. The availability of subjects is closely related to what is in their collection, not much on medieval art for example.
  • NGA Kids website for interactive art to make online.
  • Islamic Art Resources for Teachers (pdf format), from the NGA
• El Prado (Spain) – The Collection – Education
• Here's a list of award-winning museum websites.
• WebMuseum, Paris: Famous Artworks exhibition with an artist index and a themes index.

Art History

• EwArt - Art History has a great list of websites covering art around the world.
• Inside Art: An Art History Game Go inside a Van Gogh painting.
• For an art history timeline, see Timeline of Art History from the Metropolitan Museum, and check out the Resources for kids.
• Milieux:The Costume Site. Art History through costume

Websites etc. about Specific Artists and Art Movements

• Art Cyclopedia - the fine art search engine and Artchive offer lots of links.
• ArtSmart 4 Kids has lots of information.
• Famous Visual Artists
• The series "Great Art for Kids" by Margaret E. Hyde includes books on Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cassat, the Impressionists, and Matisse.

Architecture Resources

See What's Free or Cheap in NYC - Phys. Ed. for walking tours that look at the architecture of New York

• Ancient and Medieval Architecture
• Architecture from NYPL's HomeworkNYC.org.
• Architecture for Kids, a history of American houses.
• Architecture Lesson Plans
• archKIDecture encourages children to explore and participate in the built environment.
• Bridge Builder, an interactive project from PBS.
• Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, Manhattan. (212) 683-0023. Gallery, exhibitions, more.
• Digital Archive of American Architecture
• Great Buildings documents a thousand buildings and hundreds of leading architects, with 3D models, photographic images, architectural drawings, and more
• Historic American Buildings Survey
• Math-Kitecture, using Architecture to do Math (and vice versa).