Wednesday, July 13, 2011

art education at the saint louis art museum

Original photo by Matt Kitces
The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the principal U.S. art museums, visited by up to a half million people every year. Admission is free through a subsidy from the cultural tax district for St. Louis City and County.
   Located in Forest Park in St. Louis Missouri, the museum's three-story building was constructed as the Palace of the Fine Arts for the 1904 World's Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Architect Cass Gilbert was inspired by the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy. The British architect Sir David Chipperfield was selected to design a major addition to the museum. It will add 224,000 square feet (20,800 m2), including above ground gallery space and underground parking. Construction began in 2009, with completion planned for 2012. Michel Desvigne has been selected as landscape architect.
   In addition to the featured exhibitions, the Museum offers rotating exhibitions and installations. These include the Currents series, which showcases contemporary artists, as well as regular exhibitions of textiles, new media art, and works on paper.
   The collection (virtual tour) of the Saint Louis Art Museum contains more than 30,000 art works from antiquity to the present. The collection is divided into eleven areas and the museum offers education materials for educators under the following categories: African * American * Ancient Egypt * Islamic * Asian * Contemporary * Decorative Arts and Design * Early European * Modern Europe * Oceanic * Pre-Columbian and American Indian * Sculpture * Prints, Drawings, and Photograph.
   The modern art collection includes works by the European masters Matisse, Gauguin, Monet, Picasso, and Van Gogh. The particularly good collection of 20th-century German paintings includes the world's largest Max Beckmann collection. The museum has Chuck Close's Keith (1970).
    The collections of Oceanic and Pre-Columbian works, as well as handwoven Turkish rugs, are among the finest in the world. The museum holds the Egyptian mummy Amen-Nestawy-Nakht, and two mummies on loan from Washington University. Its collection of American artists includes the largest U.S.-museum collection of paintings by George Caleb Bingham.

    Below are lesson plans that I have specifically written for those teachers who wish to utilize both the collections at the St. Louis Art Museum and the web database generated by the museum's staff.
  1. Portrait of A Survivor - is a lesson plan integrating both art history, the visual arts, and literacy. 
  2. Tialoc Mask - is a lesson combining paper mache and mosaic methods. This one is still "under construction" I'll include the teacher's sample and photos soon
  3. Drawing from Greek and Roman Pottery - is a lesson that focuses the student's attention on the elaborate design details used by ancient Greek potters.
  4. The Egyptian Scribe and His Equipment - This art lesson includes a literacy activity describing the life style and routine of an Egyptian scribe along with an art activity. 
  5. Egyptian Jewelry Design - includes instructions for making a press mold. I will include photos of this method at a later date.
  6. Ancient Effigy Pot - made with an old paper mache method.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011

study native americans online

       Archaeology is the science and humanity that studies historical human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes. Archaeology aims to understand humankind through these humanistic endeavors. In the United States the field is commonly considered to be a subset of anthropology, along with physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology, whilst in British and European universities, archaeology is considered as a separate discipline.
      Archaeology involves surveyance, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected in order to learn more about the past. There are various different goals to the discipline, including the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies. Indeed, archaeology is particularly useful in discovering information about human Prehistory, which comprises over 99% of total human history, due to the lack of written sources for this period and the full reliance on archaeological evidence. However, alongside this it is also used to investigate more recent history, even that reaching back only a few decades.

 Left, Artist Lucy Telles and large basket, in Yosemite National Park, 1933 Center, Haida totem pole, Thunderbird Park, British Columbia. Right, Mata Ortiz pottery jar by Jorge Quintana, 2002. Displayed at Museum of Man, San Diego, California.

      In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography, geology, linguistics, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.
      Looting of archaeological sites is an ancient problem. For instance, many of the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs were looted during antiquity. Archaeology stimulates interest in ancient objects, and people in search of artifacts or treasure cause damage to archaeological sites. The commercial and academic demand for artifacts unfortunately contributes directly to the illicit antiquities trade. Smuggling of antiquities abroad to private collectors has caused great cultural and economic damage in many countries whose governments lack the resources and or the will to deter it. Looters damage and destroy archaeological sites, denying future generations information about their ethnic and cultural heritage. Indigenous peoples especially lose access to and control over their 'cultural resources', ultimately denying them the opportunity to know their past.
      Popular consciousness often associates looting with poor Third World countries, but this is a false assumption. A lack of financial resources and political will are chronic worldwide problems inhibiting more effective protection of archaeological sites. Many Native American Indians today, such as Vine Deloria, Jr., consider any removal of cultural artifacts from a Native American Indian site to be theft, and much of professional archaeology as academic looting.

 Left, Storyteller Under Sunny Skies, storyteller doll by Rose Pecos-SunRhodes (Jemez), 1993, collection of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Center, Una Vida Pueblo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. by photographer James Q. Jacobs. Right, "Carpet" of land in the Town Hall Square in La Orotava Tenerife in celebration of Corpus Christi.

      In 1937 W. F. Hodge the Director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles CA, released a statement that the museum would no longer purchase or accept collections from looted contexts. The first conviction of the transport of artifacts illegally removed from private property under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA; Public Law 96-95; 93 Statute 721; 16 U.S.C. 470aamm) was in 1992 in the State of Indiana.
      In the United States, examples such as the case of Kennewick Man have illustrated the tensions between Native Americans and archaeologists which can be summarized as a conflict between a need to remain respectful towards burials sacred sites and the academic benefit from studying them. For years, American archaeologists dug on Indian burial grounds and other places considered sacred, removing artifacts and human remains to storage facilities for further study. In some cases human remains were not even thoroughly studied but instead archived rather than reburied. Furthermore, Western archaeologists' views of the past often differ from those of tribal peoples. The West views time as linear; for many natives, it is cyclic. From a Western perspective, the past is long-gone; from a native perspective, disturbing the past can have dire consequences in the present.
Susquehannock artifacts on display at the 
State Museum of Pennsylvania, 2007
      As a consequence of this, American Indians attempted to prevent archaeological excavation of sites inhabited by their ancestors, while American archaeologists believed that the advancement of scientific knowledge was a valid reason to continue their studies. This contradictory situation was addressed by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990), which sought to reach a compromise by limiting the right of research institutions to possess human remains. Due in part to the spirit of postprocessualism, some archaeologists have begun to actively enlist the assistance of indigenous peoples likely to be descended from those under study.
      Archaeologists have also been obliged to re-examine what constitutes an archaeological site in view of what native peoples believe to constitute sacred space. To many native peoples, natural features such as lakes, mountains or even individual trees have cultural significance. Australian archaeologists especially have explored this issue and attempted to survey these sites in order to give them some protection from being developed. Such work requires close links and trust between archaeologists and the people they are trying to help and at the same time study.
      While this cooperation presents a new set of challenges and hurdles to fieldwork, it has benefits for all parties involved. Tribal elders cooperating with archaeologists can prevent the excavation of areas of sites that they consider sacred, while the archaeologists gain the elders' aid in interpreting their finds. There have also been active efforts to recruit aboriginal peoples directly into the archaeological profession. (Wikipedia.org)

 Archaeology Links:
Museums that house significant Native American Collections for teachers and students to study from. These museums also host numerous Native American exhibitions:
More of The Best Native American clipart, photographs, illustrations, and engravings. Our staff updates all of the links listed below.
  1. First People's giant collection of indian clipart.
  2. Native American Clipart from old books.
  3. Indian graphics from Greasy Grass
  4. Native American Clipart from the Public Domain
  5. Heartland Ranch Indian Graphics
  6. Heartland Prairie Indian Graphics
  7. School Clip Art of Native Americans
  8. Blue Cloud Abby Native American Photograph Collection.
  9. Pictures of Native Americans in the United States
  10. Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
  11. American Indians / Native Americans from the Chicago Daily News
  12. National Anthropological Archives
  13. Indians of North America-Theodore De Bry Copper Plate Engravings
  14. Index of White Watercolors and De Bry Engravings
  15. Picturing the New World, The hand-colored De Bry Engravings of 1590
  16. Public Domain Images of Native Americans
  17. Native portraits from the Public Domain Photo Blog
  18. National Anthropological Archives
  19. Native American Photochroms
  20. After Columbus: Four-hundred Years of Native American Portraiture
  21. American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island
  22. American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection
  23. Benedicte Wrensted: An Idaho Photographer in Focus
  24. Dawn of a New Day, photograph collections at the Arizona State University Library
  25. Early Photographers Of First Peoples In British Columbia
  26. Edward Harvey Davis Photo Gallery - San Diego Historical Society
  27. Gallery of the Open Frontier, University of Nebraska Press and the National Archives
  28. Images of the Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains
  29. Indians near Warner Springs - San Diego Historical Society
  30. Mi'kmaq Portraits
  31. Native American Photographs : Nineteenth Century Images, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
  32. Panoramic photographs from the National Archives, including one of a large group on Indians.
  33. Photographs from the Union Pacific Railroad Archives
  34. Picture Collection Online from the New York Public Library
  35. Pictures of Indians in the United States , in the National Archives
  36. Prints and Photographs Reading Room , Library of Congress
  37. llustrations and Photographs, 1891-93 by Thomas W. Kavanagh
  38. Wanamaker Collection of American Indian photographs
  39. Reading Historic Photographs: Photographers of the Pawnee by Thomas W. Kavanagh
  40. Richard Throssel: Photographer of the Crows
  41. Special Collections and Archives Department, Cline Library , Northern Arizona University
  42. Stereotyping Native America
  43. The Outsider and the Native Eye: The Photographs of Richard Throssel
  44. Visual Records Collections, British Columbia Archives
  45. Wisconsin Historical Images
  46. Alaska Clipart Collection
  47. ETC's Native American Clip Art
  48. Native American Clipart from U.S. History Images
  49. Native American Symbols
  50. Native American Indian Graphics from classroomclipart.com
  51. Native American Tribal Designs from Adcre8tr.com
  52. Tribal Clip Art from Native American Art Prints
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

art lessons about vincent van gogh

Bedroom in Arles (1888), Van Gogh Museum
      Vincent Willem van Gogh  ( March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art as a result of its vivid colors and emotional impact. Suffering from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life, he died largely unknown at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, most of his best-known works dating from his last two years. In less than a decade, he produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. His work included self portraits, landscapes, portraits, and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.
      Van Gogh spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers, traveling between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught for a time in England. One of his early aspirations was to become a pastor and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium where he began to sketch people from the local community. In 1885, he painted his first major work The Potato Eaters. His palette at the time consisted mainly of somber earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later work. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the French Impressionists. Later he moved to the south of France and was taken by the strong sunlight he found there. His work grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style which became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888.
      The extent to which his mental illness affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. Despite a widespread tendency to romanticize his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of illness. According to art critic Robert Hughes, Van Gogh's late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and "longing for concision and grace".

 Art Lessons About Vincent Van Gogh: 
More Links About Vincent Van Gogh:
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art lessons about m. c. escher

Relativity, 1953

Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher  was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.

Art Lessons About M. C. Escher:
More Links About M. C. Escher:
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art lesson plans about georgia o'keeffe


Blue and Green Music, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921
      Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades after women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists were well known or highly celebrated. Within a decade, she had distinguished herself as one of America's most important modern artists, a position she maintained throughout her life. As a result, O’Keeffe not only carved out a significant place for women painters in an area of the American art community that had been exclusive to and is still dominated by men, but also she had become one of America’s most celebrated cultural icons well before her death at age 98 in 1986.
      Her abstract imagery of the 1910s and early 1920s is among the most innovative of any work produced in the period by American artists. She revolutionized the tradition of flower painting in the 1920s by making large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens. And her depictions of New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade, have been recognized as among the most compelling of any paintings of the modern city. Beginning in 1929, when she first began working part of the year in Northern New Mexico—which she made her permanent home in 1949—O’Keeffe depicted subjects specific to that area. Through paintings of its unique landscape configurations, adobe churches, cultural objects, and the bones and rocks she collected from the desert floor, she ultimately laid claim to this area of the American Southwest, which earlier had been celebrated primarily by male artists; the area around where she worked and lived has become known as “O’Keeffe Country."

Links To Art Lessons About Georgia O'Keeffe:
More Links About Georgia O'Keeffe:
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    art lessons about matisse

    The Dessert: Harmony in Red, 1908, 
    Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
    Henri Matisse. 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

    Art Lesson Plans About Matisse:
    More Links About Matisse:
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    Wednesday, June 15, 2011

    ceramic lesson plans: "an all american berry pie"


    Student versions of ceramic berry pies
    Title: “An All American Berry Pie” ceramic version
    Topic: learning to work with clay, sculpture
    Grade: 3rd grade
    Length of Class Period: 55 min.
    Frequency of Class Period: once a week
    Time Needed: two class periods 
    Goals & Objectives: 
    • Students will model clay with control.  
    • Students will build upon past knowledge in order to craft an original, three-dimensional artwork. 
    • Through observation, investigation and discipline, students will create an art object demonstrating the use of the elements and principles of design.  
    • Students will use ceramic vocabulary when referring to the processes of shaping clay objects. 
    GLEs:
    Strand I: Product/Performance for Sculpture, Ceramics, Other Media
    A.2. Select and apply three-dimensional media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas and solve challenging visual art  problems.
    Grade 2 - Manipulate paper to create low relief (e.g., curling, folding, tearing, and cutting), Modeling with clay or a similar material:, Roll coils: flatten material into a slab
    Grade 3 - Manipulate paper to create forms (in-the- round), Cut a symmetrical shape from a folded piece of paper, Modeling with clay or a similar material:, Create applied and impressed textures
    Strand II: Elements and Principles – Form
    C. 1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork.
    Grade 2 - Identify and use geometric forms: sphere, cube, cylinder, and cone
    Grade 3 - Identify and demonstrate sculpture-in-the-round
    Strand II: Elements and Principles – Texture
    D. 1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork.
    Grade 2 - Identify and use actual texture
    Grade 3 - Identify and use invented textures 
    Facility & Equipment Requirements:
    • One computer lap top
    • Room with good lighting
    • Large tables, approximately ten, each seating four students
    • Two sinks
    • Dry erase board
    • Drying racks
    • Cabinets for storage
    • Projector for viewing computer video, CDs and DVDs
    • Kiln for firing ceramic masks
    Resources Needed:
    • Sample for the chalkboard or interactive whiteboard. (I will attach below)
    • Pattern for ceramic pie shell. ( I will attach below)
    • Tips for beginning potters by Murry's Pottery. This video collection is appropriate for very young students. Murry shows basic techniques, child appropriate language, kind voice, secular presentations, excellent visuals and explanations. (15 videos)  
    • The History of Pie by Laura Mayer 
    •  "Blueberries For Sal" by Robert McClosky. If you don't own the book, you may view the story on youtube here.
    Materials Per Student:
    • A paper towel
    • Amount of clay approximating the size of tow tennis balls per student is used for the modeling of this object. The first ball is rolled out into a slab by the instructor in advance of the actual project, and the second ball is used by the students to create berries for the pies.
    • A variety of clay printing and modeling tools (wood chips, shells, pencils, clay stamps, etc...)
    • Each student will need one burlap place mat to keep his/her working space clean and also to prevent clay from sticking to their counter space while he/she works
    • A bowl or cup to keep berries in while students work.
    • A shallow dish filled with very little water should be put in the middle of each table for students to dip their fingers into and drip small amount of water onto their clay pieces while they are attaching berries to their pie “shells” and to other berries.
    Activity Prior To The Lesson? Teachers may read aloud “Blueberries For Sal” by Robert McCloskey or they may also choose to share an interesting article about pies from the internet, a letter, or childhood memory with the students.
          This ceramic project is also a wonderful addition to a homeroom literacy activity that is planned around “Blueberries For Sal.” The ceramic versions of the following project can be accomplished with salt clay just as effectively. Because salt clay is normally baked in a regular oven; art projects made with it may be taught by those teachers whom do not have access to a fancy kiln.
    Step-by-Step Studio Activity Specifics:
    1. Prior to class the teacher will need to roll out clay ceramic slabs. I’ve included a pattern for students to use for cutting out their pie pieces with a plastic knife.
    2. Students will need to roll out approximately 30 to 40 blueberry-sized balls or approximately 30 cherry sized balls each per one clay pie slice. The teacher should give each student a bowl or cup to keep their clay berries in while they work. This will eliminate some confusion over “rolling” berries during this exercise.
    3. The teacher will then pass out to students the supplies they need to begin the assembling of their ceramic pies.
    4. The teacher will demonstrate to the students how to cut out the paper patterns, place these on top of the rolled slabs and cut around each pattern.
    5. Students will then observe the teacher first before assembling their own pie.
    6. Stack berries along the edges of the larger triangle slab, leaving approximately one inch at the flat end of the triangle free from berries. This end will be shaped upward and pinched together with the shorter triangle after the berries have been secured in the first step.
    7. The berries should always be stacked using the methods I have discussed in previous ceramic projects. Poke holes or slashes into the clay, add little drops of water and then press each berry firmly into place. This allows the ceramic clay to properly “bond” itself to the clay you are sculpting.
    8. Students only need to stack berries on the outer edges of pie slices that will be visible. Add a moist towel to the inside of the pie so that when the top of the slice (smaller triangle) is attached, it will not collapse inward. This towel will burn up during the firing of the pie in the kiln.
    9. The students may then slash the outer edges of the top triangle, moisten and press down the top onto the berries. Then lift the back edge of the lower triangle up and pinch it into place with the top triangle. Create this seal with a fork or a nice pinched edge.
    10. Students may add fork pricks into the top of their ceramic pies to “mimic” the steam holes of an actual pie.
    11. Some students may add whipped cream or additional berries to their pies to make their pies look fancier!
    12. After the ceramic pies have been fired, give each student a small set of watercolors to paint their creation.
    13. Add touches of clear glossy sealer to the berries to make them look real if you’d like. I even let students paint on white glitter glue on the top of their pies. This looks like sugar.
    Clay Vocabulary:
    • pinch - to form clay between the fingers and the palm
    • coil - a rope-like formation of clay
    • slab - a evenly rolled or pressed layer of clay
    • bisque - is clay that has been fired but not yet glazed
    • ceramics - are objects created from stoneware, porcelain or terra cotta
    • clay - soil, water and sand
    • fire - is the name for the heat that is used in a kiln
    • glaze - a glass paint used on pottery
    • kiln - a special oven used for hardening clay
    • greenware - pottery that is not yet fired in a kiln
    • leather hard - the hard condition of clay when it is almost air-dry
    • score - roughen the clay's surface so that a bond may be formed between two surfaces
    • sculpture - a three-dimensional art work
    • slip - a liquid clay used to glue two pieces together
    • texture - press into the clay surface with objects to create a pattern, design or rough surface
    Special Needs Adaptations:
    Modifications for the hard-of-hearing or deaf student:
    • Student will be seated closer to instructor so they will be better equipped to hear instructions or read lips
    • Student will be provided with written instructions so that they read about the discussions and demonstrations
    • The instructor may use a amplification devise provided by the school or student’s parents
    Modifications for the student with limited vision or blindness:
    • Students will be allowed to observe samples of art projects with their hands and for extended periods of time
    • Students will be provided with safe tools and one-on-one guidance during a demonstration of the project
    • The project may be slightly adjusted to accommodate the student’s limitations or for safety reasons
    • Student will be given ample time to exist classroom before large crowds gather outside of the classroom.
    Modifications for students with mild brain injury:
    • Students will be provided with duplicate instructions for home and school. Student will not need to remember to carry home materials to review.
    • Students will be given ample time to exist classroom with a pre-determined aid or peer before the official end of a class.
    • Instructor will provide for parent e-mail communication concerning the progress and needs of their student.
    • Student may be given special seat assignment in order to enable his participation in class appropriately. Specific peers may be better equipped to articulate projects visually for this student.
    Health & Safety Concerns: There are no health and safety concerns for this project.
    Cleanup Time & Strategy: Students will be instructed to put away art materials neatly in their containers, clean off their tables, and recycle their trash two minutes prior to dismissal.
    Assessment: The teacher will grade the studio assignment and worksheet according to a rubric included with the standard grading charts of the district.

    Student samples of ceramic pies

    Side view of ceramic pies
    Grimm's pie pattern for ceramic pie project
    All articles and lesson plans are copyrighted 2011 by Grimm

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