Single-Visit Gallery Lessons

Multiple-Visit Programs

Self-Guided School Group Visits

Teacher Workshops and Resources

Using Art to Teach Literacy

Wyeth Grant Envisioning America

Examples of Gallery Activities

General - these activities can be used with any work of art, in any of the Museum's many rooms or galleries.

K - 4th grade:

LIFE CYCLE OF A WORK OF ART
After reviewing the life cycle of an animal they're familiar with, students look at a work of art, and try to figure out what the artist did to create that work, and in what order. The gallery teacher writes out the artwork's life cycle as the students give their ideas.

LINE SEARCH
Each student or pair of students is given a small piece of paper, each piece showing a different kind of line (curvy, jagged, wavy, dotted, etc.) Students find the best example of that kind of line in the gallery, and place their paper below it. When everyone's placed their paper, the group gets together, and the students present their choice in front of the other students.

MATCH A WORD TO A WORK
Each student or small group of students is given a piece(s) of paper with a word(s) on it. They are told to select the work that best matches the word on their paper, and to be prepared to explain why. They place the word face down in front of the appropriate work. Students regroup, and go around the gallery with the gallery teacher to talk about their choices, and to discuss why the same or different words were used with a specific work of art.

MOOD WORDS (for fourth-graders)
Sitting together in front of a work of art, the gallery teacher asks students to describe the mood of a given work of art. The students discuss why different words may be used with the same work of art, and which words they think are the most effective. They then go to a different work(s) of art. Using a worksheet, each student writes down mood words for the work based on color, contrast, body position, gesture, or other details he or she notices in the work. The students then share their ideas with the group.

MUSIC MATCH
Students look at a single work of art, and listen to three distinct musical selections. Students "vote" for the piece of music that they think relates the best to the work of art, each student giving his/her reason(s).

5th - 12th grade:

CLUE SENTENCES
Small groups of students practice descriptive writing by creating a clue sentence about a work of art. Teams will try to identify the works from their classmates' clues.

GREAT IDEAS
Students select a work of art that reflects one of Mortimer Adler's "great ideas of the Western world." The art/idea connection can range from art reflecting a historical moment to art inviting a more open interpretation.

GREETING CARDS
By selecting a work of art to match a particular "greeting," students look at a work creatively, recognize communicative qualities in a work, and share their ideas.

READING A WORK OF ART
This small group activity helps students look carefully at a work by identifying elements, analyzing relationships, interpreting meaning, and evaluating its success.

TOKEN RESPONSE
By placing selected token(s) beneath work(s) of art (heart, yuck, blue ribbon, etc.), students learn that people can respond differently to the same work art based on individual experiences and tastes.

TRI-FOLD
Students respond on paper to open-ended questions about a single work of art. Papers are collected and read anonymously, allowing students to hear their peers' perceptions without being put on the spot and validate their own observations.

VIEWING STRATEGIES
Students explore different ways to access a work of art by selecting a variety of strategies that help them understand more about the work they've chosen.

WHERE ARTISTS GET IDEAS
Students consider a variety of sources for artists' inspiration, then look for a work that indicates one or more of those sources.

Specific - these activities can be used with one or more pre-selected objects, or are designed to introduce or reinforce a specific concept or skill related to one or more works of art.

K - 4th grade:

ANIMAL LANDSCAPE ACTIVITY
Students consider the qualities of a single animal, then look for a landscape painting in a gallery that would be a safe and healthy environment for that animal.

ATTRIBUTES GAME
Each student selects objects for a portrait of him/herself that reflect the person he/she is or wants to be in the future. OR...students select one of several professions, and dress the teacher with the attributes relating to that profession (chef, construction worker, artist, doctor, ballet dancer, etc.) Students then consider what the attributes in a portrait can tell them about the sitter.

EVERYDAY OBJECTS
After discussing the relationship between the form of an object and its function, students are divided into smaller groups. Each group is given a modern equivalent for an ancient object, and is instructed to find its "match" in one of the Museum's galleries.

HOW HOT IS IT?
Students review the idea of warm and cool colors, and how temperatures are measured with a thermometer. Sitting in front of a work of art, they identify a single color in the work, figure out whether it is a warm or cool color, and what it's relative temperature may be. They repeat this activity with other colors in the work. They then estimate the temperature for the overall work, with the gallery teacher recording each student's estimate. The students then determine the final temperature of the work.

MODERN ART IN FELT
The gallery teacher makes a realistically-colored landscape from simplified felt shapes. Students work to recreate that same scene in non-realistic colors to create a more modern composition. Then they use all of the shapes to create an entirely new composition.

SCULPTURE SCALE
Students who've studied rocks/geology in class look at pre-selected sculptures in small groups. Using a worksheet with several scales, each group analyzes a sculpture for color, hardness, etc. The groups present their ideas about its sculpture; the gallery teacher asks follow-up questions to relate their answers to what they've discussed about rocks before coming to the Museum.

SEE AND SOUND
After practicing with a gallery teacher in front of a work of art, students work in small groups to create original musical compositions based on a work of art. Students consider different kinds of sounds, rhythms, and volumes while creating their works.

SENSES CENSUS
Students sit in front of a complex work of art that refers to all five senses. Each student receives a card that relates to one of the five senses, and is asked to find something in the work that they think represents the sense on his/her card. Students then share their answers with the group, then pass their cards to the person to their right to repeat the process with a different sense.

SHAPE AND COLOR RINGS
Each student is given a ring that holds a range of individual colors or shapes on it. Sitting in front of a work of art, students are asked to select a color or shape that they see in the painting, find that color or shape on their rings, and hold it up so they can discuss their choices with the group.

TABLEAU VIVANT
In front of a complex work of art, students are selected from the larger group to recreate a work of art by placing their bodies in the positions of the figures in the painting. The other students in the group help the "characters" refine their facial expressions, gestures, and body positions to recreate the work as exactly as possible. A photograph of the recreation is taken to carry back to the classroom.

TELLING TALES
After identifying and reviewing the parts of a story, students are told a story about a work of art in front of it. They are asked to identify which parts of the story were included in the work of art, and which ones were not. Students are then asked to retell the story.

WHICH CAME FIRST?
Sitting in front of a work of art, students hear a story related to it. They are then asked to tell the beginning, middle and end of the story, identifying the different parts as they go along.

5th - 12th grade:

30-SECOND LOOK
Students consider "part-to-whole" relationships in a work of art. First, they look briefly at a work and, then, without looking, recall details they noticed and discuss how those details fit into the "bigger picture."

ART/NOT ART
Students develop criteria for defining art, then take a position about a work of art and defend it.

ART WHICH
Students discover significant features of a national or cultural artistic style by finding a work of art that demonstrates a particular characteristic of that style.

CLOSE CLAY VESSEL VIEWING
Students practice attending to a work of art in different ways (verbal description, written description, drawing). The content for this activity centers on Asian, North Carolina and/or ancient Greek ceramics.

DOSSIER
Students complete a "questionnaire" about a figure in a work of art, giving them an opportunity for imaginative thinking and to practice interpreting a work of art based on visual evidence.

DRAWING ACTIVITIES
Several already exist, which can be adapted to the classroom unit of study.

GRID
Students practice analyzing and responding to a work of art in terms of materials/techniques, the artist's main idea, meaning, and personal response.

ILLUSIONISTIC SPACE
Students will discover and/or review different ways that artists create an illusion of space on a flat surface.

ISSUES IN ART
Information about an issue related to a work of art is given to small groups of students, who use it as a tool for understanding the work and for problem solving.

MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS
Students explore components of a complex mixed-media contemporary sculpture to determine relationships between elements in the work and cultural history, personal history, and the artist's intent.

NARRATIVES IN ART
Students explore similarities in and differences between a written or oral story and its visual counterpart.

POETRY
A variety of appropriate poetry activities is available for grades 5-12.

PROVERBS
Using the proverbs on an African drum, students explore meaning and interpretations relevant both to the culture in which or for which it was made, and themselves.

SEMINAR
Students will practice interpretive skills by means of an extended conversation about a single work of art, using the Paideia philosophy of seminar teaching.

SYMBOLS AND STYLES
Students note visual evidence in a religious work of art that can help them identify it, learn how local styles impact a work, and determine which religious tenets are visible in the works under discussion and how those tenets are demonstrated.

WRITING FROM A POINT OF VIEW
Students will select a work of art, imagine what it would be like to be a figure or object in that composition, and write about the work from the figure's or object's point of view.