types of puppets defined

       Types of Puppets – Puppetry by its nature is a flexible and inventive medium, and many puppet companies work with combinations of puppet forms, and incorporate real objects into their performances. They might, for example, incorporate “performing objects” such as torn paper for snow, or a sign board with words as narrative devices within a production. The following are, alphabetically, the basic and conventional forms of puppet:

Black light puppet – A form of puppetry where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppet. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets under the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Controlling what the audience sees is a major responsibility of any puppeteer, and blacklight lighting provides a new way of accomplishing this. Puppets of all sizes and types are able to be used, and glow in a powerful and magical way. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.

• Brilliant and Moving Puppet Theatre
• Black Light Theatre of Jiri Srnec

Bunraku puppet – Bunraku puppets are a tyrepe of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as kind of ‘shadow’ figures adds a mysterious power to the puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is 2/3 life size.

• Japanese Bunraku puppets

Carnival or body puppet – usually designed to be part of a large spectacle. These are often used in parades (such as the May day parade in Minneapolis, USA) and demonstrations, and are at least the size of a human and often much larger. One or more performers are required to move the body and limbs. In parades, the appearance and personality of the person inside is not relevant to the spectator. These puppets are particularly associated with large scale entertainment, such as the nightly parades at various Disney complexes around the world. Similar puppets were designed by Julie Taymor for The Lion King.

• Nottingham Light Night 2010
• Giant Puppet Street Parade, Siem Reap, Cambodia 2012
• Little Girl Dancing – Sea Odyssey Liverpool 2012
• Rudolf Nureyev at Muppet Show
• 4 Legged Stilt Costumes
• Walking With Dinosaurs visits Urban Rush
• 2008 Tony Awards Lion King Circle of Life

Finger puppet - An extremely simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. This form of puppet has limited application, and is used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children.

Sock Puppet – A puppet formed from a sock and operated by inserting ones hand inside the sock. One then moves his hand up and down to give the impression of speaking. Sometimes eyes and other factors are added to the sock in order to make the puppet more realistic. Sock Puppets are also popular in many puppet performances, as they are simple to make and easy to use. They are mostly used in satirical or childish works, as they are not very professional.

Hand or glove puppet – These are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer’s hand in just the puppet’s head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet’s body then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms, but special variants exist with eyelids which can be manipulated; the mouth may also open and close) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock.

• Make a Winter Glove Puppet
• Punch & Judy May Fair – “clowning around”
• Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey

Human-arm puppet – Also called a “two-man puppet” or a “Live-hand puppet”; it is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers. One puppeteer places a hand inside the puppet’s head and operates its head and mouth, while the other puppeteer wears gloves and special sleeves attached to the puppet in order to become the puppet’s arms, so that the puppet can perform arbitrary hand gestures. This is a form of glove or hand puppetry and rod puppetry.

• Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors”

Mechanical Extensions for Body Puppet Anatomy:

• Centaur Costume for Chronicles of Narnia

Light Curtain puppet presentations use specifically focused light to highlight small areas of a performance, allowing the puppet to be seen while the manipulators remain invisible. The puppets stand on a stage divided into an unlit background and a well-lit foreground, meeting to form a “curtain” of light. The puppeteer dresses in black and remains hidden in the unlit background of the stage while the puppet is held across the light curtain in the lit foreground of the stage. “Light curtain puppet” is an umbrella term, and any puppet which is extended into a well-lit area where its handler remains separated from the puppet by a division of light may be called a light curtain puppet.

• Funky Fingers
• Silhouettes – America’s Got Talent

Marionette or “string puppet” – These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one. Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs). This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. The puppet play performed by the Von Trapp children with Maria in The Sound of Music is a marionette show.

• Salzburg Marionette Theatre
• Amsterdams Marionetten Theater – ‘De Toverfluit’ and still shots
• Puppets in Praque Marionette Carving Workshop
• A Book of Marionettes by Helen Haiman Joseph

Marotte - A simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick. In a marotte à main prenante, the puppeteer’s other arm emerges from the body (which is just a cloth drape) to act as the puppet’s arm. Some marottes have a small string running through the stick attached to a handle at the bottom. When the handle is squeezed, the mouth opens.

Pull String Puppet – a puppet consisting of a cloth body where in the puppeteer puts his/her arm into a slot in the back and pulls rings on strings that do certain tasks such as waving or moving the mouth.

• Mr. Punch
• Punch and Judy: free paper theater for student's journals
• Three-Dimensionaland Fully Assembled Paper Muppets

Push puppet – A push puppet consists of a segmented character on a base which is kept under tension until the button on the bottom is pressed. The puppet wiggles, slumps and then collapses, and is usually used as a novelty toy.

• Jungle push puppets

Push-in or Paper puppet, or Toy Theatre – A puppet cut out of paper and stuck onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets were produced for puppets and scenery from the 19th century for children’s use.

Rod Puppet – A puppet constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet and by turning the central rod secured to the head.

• What are Hand and Rod Puppets?

Shadow puppet – A cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the puppet (or light source) out of focus. Javanese shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit) are the classic example of this.

• Hand shadow puppets
• Round – Hand Shadows Video by el Mago Serpico
• Free Resources Online

Supermarionation – A method invented by Gerry Anderson which assisted in his television series Thunderbirds in electronically moving the mouths of marionettes to allow for lip-synchronised speech. The marionettes were still controlled by human manipulators with strings.

Ticklebug – A ticklebug is a type of hand puppet created from a human hand to have four legs, where the puppet features are drawn on the hand itself. The middle finger is lifted as a head, and the thumb and forefinger serve as a first set of two legs on one side, while the ring finger and little finger serve as a second set of two legs on the opposite side.

• Amazing Hand Art

Table Top Puppets – A puppet usually operated by rod or direct contact from behind, on a surface similar to a table top (hence the name). Shares many characteristics with Bunraku.

• Raggedy Ann by  Alissa Hunnicutt
• Uninvited by Allissa Hunnicutt
• Pinokenstein – You Made Me

Ventriloquist dummy – A puppet operated by a ventriloquist performer to focus the audience’s attention from the performer’s activities and heighten the illusions. They are called dummies because they do not speak on their own. The ventriloquist dummy is controlled by the one hand of the ventriloquist. Such acts aren’t always performed with a traditional dummy, occasionally using other forms of puppetry.

• ABC Collectors – Ventriloquist Dummies
• Teen Ventriloquist, Megan

Water Puppet – a Vietnamese puppet form, the “Múa rối nước”. Múa rối nước literally means “puppets that dance on water”, an ancient tradition that dates back to the tenth century. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this puppet form.

• Vietnamese Water Puppet Show
• Water Puppet Show Hanoi, Vietnam
• A Traditional Water Puppet Show in Vietnam

resources for weaving

From a carpet-weaving in Hamadan. Tabriz and Isfahan,
as well as in many villages, even in the dark nomad tents
and mud huts, are headed by women and girls, the cheapest
 labor, the famous Persian rugs made. For desert dwellers,
 and nomads are the ornaments of their colorful carpet a
 symbol of paradise, and a replacement for the garden
with real flowers.

      Weaving is a textile craft in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced to form a fabric or cloth. The threads which run lengthways are called the warp and the threads which run across from side to side are the weft or filling.
      Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven". A fabric band which meets this definition of cloth (warp threads with a weft thread winding between) can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back-strap, or other techniques without looms.
      The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products are created with one of three basic weaves: plain weave, satin weave, or twill. Woven cloth can be plain (in one color or a simple pattern), or can be woven in decorative or artistic designs, including tapestries. Fabric in which the warp and/or weft is tie-dyed before weaving is called ikat.
      Though traditional handweaving and spinning remain popular crafts, nowadays the majority of commercial fabrics in the West are woven on computer-controlled Jacquard looms. In the past, simpler fabrics were woven on dobby looms, while the Jacquard harness adaptation was reserved for more complex patterns. Some believe the efficiency of the Jacquard loom, with its Jacquard weaving process, makes it more economical for mills to use them to weave all of their fabrics, regardless of the complexity of the design.
      In general, weaving involves the interlacing of two sets of threads at right angles to each other: the warp and the weft (older woof). The warp threads are held taut and in parallel order, typically by means of a loom, though some forms of weaving may use other methods. The loom is warped (or dressed) with the warp threads passing through heddles on two or more harnesses. The warp threads are moved up or down by the harnesses creating a space called the shed. The weft thread is wound onto spools called bobbins. The bobbins are placed in a shuttle that carries the weft thread through the shed.
      The raising and lowering sequence of warp threads in various sequences gives rise to many possible weave structures:

• plain weave,
• twill weave,
• satin weave, and
• complex computer-generated interlacings

      Both warp and weft can be visible in the final product. By spacing the warp more closely, it can completely cover the weft that binds it, giving a warp faced textile such as rep weave. Conversely, if the warp is spread out, the weft can slide down and completely cover the warp, giving a weft faced textile, such as a tapestry or a Kilim rug. There are a variety of loom styles for hand weaving and tapestry. In tapestry, the image is created by placing various colors of weft only in certain warp areas, rather than across the entire warp width. (Wikipedia)

• Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 – Weaving
• Resource collection
• Card Weaving
• Oriental rug weaving
• Irvine Weavers
• The Worshipful Company of Weavers

Weaving Lesson Plans:

1. Paper Weaving Lesson Plan  
2. Weaving With Foil Tooled Accents
3. Magazine Weaving
4. Weaving in Circles
5. Weave Drawing
6. Paper Plate Weaving

four sample doll challenges to develop lesson plans with

four doll challenges

      Because I am an art educator, I have a different point of view when it comes to “doll challenges.” Add just a few more steps plus an assessment form and “presto chango,” you’ve got a lesson plan! I will include my “doll challenges” here in the near future along with links to those web “doll enthusiasts” who are busy pursuing new challenges of their own. My “Challenges” are written in a lesson plan format suitable for adaptations by both middle school and high school art educators, however, teachers will need to add additional information about State and National Standards. Doll challenges present a wide variety of methods and applications that can be included in textile art classes, sewing classes and/or art clubs.

      If you are a doll artist and would like to submit photos of a completed doll for one or all of  these challenges, I will review your project and post it under the category for others to appreciate and learn from. Include the information listed at the bottom of each challenge under the label description along with several nice jpgs. Web participants should also identify the name of a pattern he or she uses and where other readers may find it if they should choose not to design their own patterns for the project. Email your entry to pickandprintgallery@yahoo.com Remember that students visit this web journal often and I will not include work that could be considered “inappropriate” for young children. (I have taught drawing and painting anatomy courses but do not include ‘nude’ content on my education web pages because of Missouri state rules and regulations concerning classroom content.) I can also give your web journal a backlink if you’d like. There are no ‘awards’ or monetary prizes for participation, sorry.

• “The Manga Creature,” Doll Challenge by Kathy Grimm
• “The Face Card, ” Paper Doll Challenge by Kathy Grimm
• The “Anthropomorphic” Doll Challenge by Kathy Grimm
• The  “Forget-Me-Not” Traditional Rag Doll Challenge by Kathy Grimm

Challenges From Across The Internet: All Dolled Up * Denver Doll Artisans *  Cloth Doll Artistry * Designs by Kat Lees * Doll Street Dreamers Challenges * FOCD Challenges * Joggles Challenges * Cloth Doll Challenge * Cloth, Paper, Scissors Challenges * Western Dollmaker * Cloth Baby Community Challenges * Couture Doll Design Challenges * Moonbeam World * Creative Doll Artists * TSG Paper Doll Challenge *
Traditional Lesson Plans About Dolls for Art Educators: Kokeshi Dolls *  Seminole Doll Making * Native American Dolls *

the history of photography in american classrooms

       The following two groups of photographers in the United States are most frequently included in lesson plans and discussions in American art studies, art appreciation and integrated studies in history. American children should be familiar with the Depression Era photography promoted by the Farm Security Administration and the pictorialist, photographic style that dominated much of American  photography during the 20th century.

Photographers Who Worked For The Farm Security Administration U.S.A: Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

      The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Critics, including the Farm Bureau strongly opposed the FSA as an experiment in collectivizing agriculture — that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. The program failed because the farmers wanted ownership; after the Conservative coalition took control of Congress it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and continues in operation in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration.

History * Photos * The Artists *

History lesson plans that integrate the photos taken for the national project: Wessels, Learner Resources - 1930s * The plight of white tenant farmers and sharecroppers * Teaching American History in South Carolina *
Art studies lesson plans that focus primarily on the actual photographs: The Great Depression, The New Deal and The Media * Art and Media in the Great Depression *
Lesson plans/resources about The Great Depression that may be used in the development of lessons including those photographers connected to the project: American Experience, 1930 *

Group F.64: Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 1900s, but moreover they wanted to promote a new Modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects. Ansel Adams * Imogen Cunningham * John Paul Edwards * Sonya Noskowiak * Henry Swift * Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston 

Artists invited to exhibit their work with Group f.64: Preston Holder * Conseuella Kanaga * Alma Lavenson * Brett Weston

Lesson plans/methods including studies in the pictorialist movement: "Frozen Lake and Cliffs" *

“true vision, authentic art journaling” by l. k. ludwig

cover of "True Vision, Authentic Art Journaling"

      I purchased “True Vision, Authentic Art Journaling,” by L. K. Ludwig to use in my art classrooms. It is full of project ideas, journal prompts and  techniques that high school art teachers will find very useful. She writes about many inspirational artists. I will link to a few of their studios below for those of you who would like to expand their research in the development of lesson plans. Ludwig’s book does most of the work for art educators who need lesson plans about art journaling. She explains the hows and whys of art journaling in a very informative and entertaining way. I have many books about the “book arts” in my personal library but this is the one that I would recommend to my fellow art teachers.

Artists Known for Art Journaling:

1. L. K. Ludwig’s “The Poetic Eye.“
2. Joe Ludwig
3. Katie Kendrick “Joyously Becoming“
4. Brenda Beene Shakleford “between assignments“
5. Bridgette Guerzon Mills “bridgette g mills“
6. Liz Lamoreux “be present, be here“
7. Carol Parks “CarolParks.com“
8. Corey Moortgat’s blog “Corey Moortgat – Collage Artist“
9. Juliana Coles “Me and Pete“
10. Karen Michel “Mixed Media Art & Musings“
11. Tricia Scott “Tricia Scott“
12. Amy Hanna “Amy Hanna“
13. Melanie Sage at Pinterest
14. Sarah Fishburn “Sarah Fishburn“
15. Melanie Komisarski
16. Elizabeth Bunsen “Be…Dream…Play…“
17. Nikki Blackwood “Moon Pie Daze“
18. Loretta Marvel “pomegranatesandpaper“
19. Kelly Rae Robert’s “Kelly Rae Roberts“
20. Sandra Hardee
21. Carla Sonheim “Snowball Journals“
22. Leighanna Light “LeiGHaNNa LiGhT ThingG MaKEr“
23. Traci Bunker “Welcome to My World“
24. Tina Abbott
25. Syd McCutcheon “Sheep floozy“
26. Lyn Huskamp “The Red Door Studio“
27. Bee Shay “Heart 2 Hand“
28. Ruth Fiege “Sk3tchbook!“
29. Mary Anne Moss “two dresses studio“
30. Shirley Ende-Saxe “In the Name of Art“
31. Michelle Remy “Lost Coast Post“

More Related Articles:

• Catching up on art journaling (katieorse.typepad.com)
• Finding Revelations in Art Journal Pages (cinnamonpink.typepad.com)
• inspired + the BIG 4-0 at the studio! (donnadowney.typepad.com)
• Assigning Art Journals to Art Students (scribology.wordpress.com)
• Art Journaling (radishblossoms.typepad.com)
• Art in Context: Understanding Aesthetic Value book downloads (adybauom.typepad.com)
• A young woman’s healing journal. (katthorsen.wordpress.com)
• Re-purposing an old book into a new Art Journal (artbymaron.com)

my professional development portfolio

"He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so." Walter Lippmann

      I maintain this web journal in order to communicate with administrators, art educators, colleagues, students and parents on a daily basis. I've listed below a detailed description of it's contents. For Administrators: The following papers describe my certification experience. My completed journal for certification may also be viewed electronically at LiveText by private invitation only. I have also uploaded my personal education philosophy here for administrators to review. The following list links to 11 MoSTEP articles describing my qualifications in the field of art education. In time all artifacts included in my private portfolio will be accessible through these same links as well.

1. Knowledge of Subject Matter
2. Human Development and Learning
3. Individualization and Diversity
4. Curriculum and Planning
5. Instructional Strategies
6. Classroom Motivation and Management
7. Communication Skills
8. Assessment of Student Learning
9. Professional Development and Reflective Practice
10. Ethics, Relationships and Communication
11. Instructional Technologies

For Parents:  This blog contains a wide variety of articles about art education parents may find entertaining. Parents may also view photographs of their work and participation in the classroom or from exhibits at "The Student Gallery" that will be posted in the near future.

For Web Searches: In time I will expand upon the "Questions and Answers" page in order to direct traffic to those topics posted under this category.

DEDICATIONS

I would like to personally thank all of the faculty and administration at the University for the professional care and industry they have invested in both the art education department and also the education department.  I would also like to express my love and affection for both my family and friends who have invested time, energy, and enthusiasm in my art education and my teaching career. Their belief in my education has made possible the experiences I bring to the classroom, to my community, and to this little internet resource. I would like to thank God for His guidance and perseverance in the development of my character and artistic abilities. 

kathy grimm copyright 2011 

 

art lessons about andy warhol

Campbell's Soup I (1968)

      Andrew Warhola, Jr. (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included Bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.

Art Lessons About Andy Warhol:

• Andy Warhol: Pop of Pop Art
• Color Theory A La Andy Warhol
• Andy Warhol Art Lesson
• Create Your Own Warhol Masterpiece
• Warhol Pop Art Portraits
• art history//lesson one: Andy Warhol
• Lesson Plan: Warhol Project
• Pop Art Portraits: in the style of Andy Warhol
• Andy Warhol Pop Art with Paint.NET by Steve Lee Ignacio
• Andy Warhol in NC
• Transparent Line Art and Photoshop, Andy Warhol Pop-Portraits
• Visual Art for the elementary classroom (biographies)
• Andy Warhol Portraits

 More Links About Andy Warhol:

• Warhol Foundation in New York City
• Andy Warhol Collection in Pittsburgh
• Time Capsules: the Andy Warhol Collection
• FBI file on Andy Warhol
• Documentation of recent exhibitions of work by Andy Warhol
• Andy Warhol at Brooke Alexander Gallery
• Andy Warhol's Empire group on Facebook
• David Cronenberg speaking about the work of Andy Warhol on UbuWeb
• "Andy Warhol". New York City: Museum of Modern Art. 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2009.
• Warholstars: Andy Warhol Films, Art and Superstars
• Pop Art Masters – Andy Warhol
• Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
• Bauman, Joe; Angelyn Hutchinson (December 17, 2007). "Andy Warhol Didn't Sleep Here: The Utah Hoax". KUTV. Retrieved January 23, 2009.^{[dead link]}
• Berens, Stephen (Fall 2002). "Responses to Warhol Retrospective at MOCA". X-TRA (Los Angeles: Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism) 5 (1). Retrieved January 23, 2009.
• "Warhol, Soup Cans, Cowboys" (Studio 360 radio program, December 10, 2005)
• exhibition of 10 statues of liberty in Gallerie Lavignes bastille, Paris 1986
• The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art – city of origin
• Andy Warhol at the Internet Movie Database
• Warhol in Paris – slideshow by The First Post
• Andy Warhol makes a digital painting of Debbie Harry at the Commodore Amiga product launch press conference in 1985
• Andy Warhol: A Documentary film by Ric Burns for PBS

art lessons about pablo picasso

1916, L'anis del mono (Bottle of Anis del Mono)
 oil on canvas, 46 x 54.6 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts.

      Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso ; (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor who lived most of his life in France. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. 

       Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence; during the first decade of the 20th century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortune, making him one of the best-known figures in 20th century art.

Art Lesson Inspired by Pablo Picasso:

• Scribble Portrait Lesson (based on drawing technique by Picasso)
• Homeschool Art Lesson on Pablo Picasso
• Pablo Picasso Lessons at Incredible Art Dept.
• Cubistic Painting Lesson
• The Shady Side of Picasso
• kids heart picasso

More Lessons About Picasso:

• Pablo Picasso Project Art Lesson
• Picasso Artist Study
• Hey Kids, Meet Pablo Picasso
• Pablo Picasso’s Colorful Childhood
• Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
• English Lesson on Pablo Picasso

Make Art Online About Picasso:

• Create your own picassohead
• Paint Your Own Picasso
• Picasso ColoringPages
• Pablo PicassoColoring Page

More links to Pablo Picasso:

• Official website
• Biography and works of Pablo Picasso
• Picasso painting on glass scene from Visit to Picasso by Paul Haesaerts
• Pablo Picasso — Biography, Quotes & Paintings, retrieved 14 June 2007.
• Poems by Picasso in English translation from Samizdat
• Cubism, The Big Picture
• Artists Rights Society, Picasso's U.S. Copyright Representatives
• Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Pablo Picasso. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California
• Picasso: Drawing With Light – slideshow by Life magazine
• Works by or about Pablo Picasso in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Footage of Pablo Picasso at Second World Peace congress in 1950

art education at the nelson-atkins art museum

Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Art Museum

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its neo-classical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art. The museum was built on the grounds of Oak Hall, the home of Kansas City Star publisher William Rockhill Nelson. When he died in 1915, his will provided that upon the deaths of his wife and daughter, the proceeds of his entire estate would go to purchasing artwork for public enjoyment. This bequest was augmented by additional funds from the estates of Nelson's daughter, son-in-law and attorney.

   In 1911, former schoolteacher Mary Atkins (widow of real estate speculator James Burris Atkins) bequeathed $300,000 to establish an art museum. Through the management of the estate, this amount grew to $700,000 by 1927. Original plans called for two art museums based on the separate bequests (with the Atkins Museum to be located in Penn Valley Park). However, trustees of the two estates decided to combine the two bequests along with smaller bequests from others to make a single major art institution.

   The building was designed by prominent Kansas City architects Wight and Wight, who also designed the approaches to the Liberty Memorial and the Kansas governor's mansion, Cedar Crest. Ground was broken in July 1930, and the museum opened December 11, 1933. The building's classical Beaux-Arts architecture style was modeled on the Cleveland Museum of Art Thomas Wight, the brother who did most of the design work for the building said:

"We are building the museum on classic principles because they have been proved by the centuries. A distinctly American principle appropriate for such a building may be developed, but, so far, everything of that kind is experimental. One doesn’t experiment with two-and-a-half million dollars^."

   When the original building opened its final cost was $2.75 million. The dimensions of the six-story structure were 390 feet (120 m) long by 175 feet (53 m) wide making it larger than the Cleveland Museum of Art.

   The museum, which was locally referred to as the Nelson Art Gallery or simply the Nelson Gallery, was actually two museums until 1983 when it was formally named the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Previously the east wing was called the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, while the west wing and lobby was called the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art.

   On the exterior of the building Charles Keck created 23 limestone panels depicting the march of civilization from east to west including wagon trains heading west from Westport Landing. Grill work in the doors depict oak leaf motifs in memory of Oak Hall. A recreation of the Oak Hall library containing the original wood paneling, floors, rugs, furniture, pictures and books, is on an upper floor. The south facade of the museum is an iconic structure in Kansas City that looms over a series of terraces onto Brush Creek.

   About the same time as the construction of the museum, Howard Vanderslice donated 8 acres to the west of the museum, across Oak Street, for the Kansas City Art Institute, which moved from the Deardorf Building at 11th and Main streets in downtown Kansas City.

   As William Nelson, the major contributor, donated money rather than a personal art collection, the curators were able to assemble a collection from scratch. At the height of the Great Depression, the worldwide art market was flooded with pieces for sale, but there were very few buyers. As such, the museum's buyers found a vast market open to them. The acquisitions grew quickly and within a short time, the Nelson-Atkins had one of the largest art collections in the country.

   One-third of the building on the first and second floors of the west wing were left unfinished when the building opened to allow for future expansion. Part was completed in 1941 to house Chinese painting and the remainder of the building was completed after World War II.

   Annually, from 1954 through 2000, the Jewel Ball, Kansas City's debutante ball, took place every June in the main hall to benefit both the museum and the Kansas City Symphony. The ball was moved temporarily to accommodate the expansion project at the museum and returned in 2008.

   In 1993, the museum began to consider the first expansion plans since the completion of the unfinished areas in the 1940s. Plans called for a 55 percent increase in space and were finalized in 1999.

   Architect Steven Holl won an international competition in 1999 for the design of the addition. Holl's concept was to build five glass towers to the east of the original building which he calls lenses. The lenses they top a 165,000-square-foot underground building known as the Bloch Building. It is named for H&R Block co-founder Henry W. Bloch. The Bloch building houses the museum's contemporary, African, photography, and special exhibitions galleries as well a new cafe, the museum's reference library, and the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court (visit his museum). The addition cost approximately $95 million and opened June 9, 2007. It was part of $200 million in renovations to the museum that included the Ford Learning Center which is home to classes, workshops, and resources for students and educators and opened in fall of 2005.

      In the competition to design the addition, all the entrants except Holl proposed creating a modern addition on the north side of the museum which would have drastically altered or obscured the north facade which served as the main entrance to the museum. However Holl proposed placing the addition on the east side perpendicular to the main building. Holl's lenses now march down the east perimeter of the grounds.

   Admission to the Museum is free every day and visitors may use any of seven entrances to access building. The main visitor's desk is in the Bloch Building. On the north side of the museum, A reflecting pool now occupies part of the J.C. Nichols Plaza on the north facade and contains 34 occuli to provide natural light into the parking garage below. The casting of The Thinker which occupied this space prior to the renovations has been relocated south of the museum.

Modern new additions to the museum

    The collections consist of artworks from Africa, America, China, Europe, Japan, and South Asia. Art educators may sign up for the museum's free newsletter and visit the research library located at Ford Learning Center. Current exhibitions are posted online and articles exploring the collection in depth may be accessed through the Nelson-Atkins blog.

   The museum's grounds are home to the Kansas City Sculpture Park. The park consists of 22 acres designed by Dan Kiley and Jaquelin Robertson. Among the thirty sculptures on display in the park are important works created by the late Henry Spencer Moore.

    I will include lesson plans below that I have specifically written for those teachers who wish to utilize both the collections at the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum and the web database generated by the museum's staff.

• Henry Moore Lesson Plan and Power Point in progress
• Elie Nadelman Lesson Plan and Power Point in progress
• Asian Ink Wash Painting and Power Point in progress