art museum assignment

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Hands-on and Minds-curious Art Learning

September 9, 2020 4 Comments

Virtual Art Museum Field Trip

Inside: A free virtual art museum field trip assignment for your students to complete at home or in the classroom! A complete assignment with links to art museums and four engaging activities!

We’re all looking for new ways to engage students during this crazy year! Our students need the creativity and social-emotional learning that art has to offer more than ever. What better way to connect them with art than touring an art museum?

We may not be able to do big field trips with our students this year, but they can still make artwork connections that will touch their spirit and inspire their own art. Thankfully, art museums around the world have made their collections available online. We’ve picked a few of our favorites and created four fun activities your students can complete as they explore the museums virtually!

Free Virtual Art Museum Assignment

Whether you’re teaching online, socially distancing in a classroom, or trying to get it all done in a hybrid model, you and your students will love this virtual art museum assignment.

Students choose an art museum to visit from the list (all helpfully linked), then there are four activities they can complete:

• Scavenger Hunt
• Make a Meme

Engage your students’ creativity and skills with these fun assignments! Grab the free download below.

Free Download

Virtual Field Trip Assignment

Virtual art museum field trip assignment.

Use this free virtual field trip assignment to help students explore art museums from home or in the classroom!

Ready to plan an in-person field trip to an art museum? Get our Field Trip Kit !

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Free Worksheets!

*Free Bundle of Art Appreciation Worksheets*

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

Museum Assignment

Find a museum in your area or travel to the museum of your choice.Below is a list of some museums in our area:

Canajoharie Library Collection/Canajorharie,NY

Munson Williams Proctor Museum/ Utica , NY

Fenimore House and Native American Art Museum/ Cooperstown, NY

Everson Museum/ Syracuse, NY

Clark Museum/Williamstown, Mass.

Norman Rockwell Museum/ Stockbridge, Mass.

Old Forge Art Center

Hamilton College Art Gallery

Of course, there is NYC with the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art

Guggenheim Museum

Brooklyn Museum

And galleries too numerous to name here.

Catskill area: DIA Beacon

Oleana, home of the Hudson River Painter , Frederick Church

Obviously if you are a student from California, you can choose whatever museum is in your area. If you want some guidence as to what is available in your area, let me know exactly where you live, and I will give you some ideas.

This Museum visit must be completed by 4/1 to give you time to research one artist that you find in the museum collection.

From your museum visit choose one work which really grabs your attention. Make little pencil sketches of the work. These are not professional finished drawings, but rough quick sketches of the chosen artwork.

a. Objects, figures, architecture, abstract marks, etc. b. Values ( light and shadows)

c. Composition, ( where things are in the picture )

Do not worry about photographic realism here. A sketch is a sketch. Make about 4 or 5 little sketches, taking about a total of 30 min.

* Make a digital image of the drawings, and attach the file as you would attach a file to a written assignment.

* You may also scan your drawing, and attach that file.

PART 3/Museum Project

Write a short research essay on the particular artist that you chose. You want to choose an artist that has some fame here. If you choose the local talent, there may not be much material on the net in which to write much on.

Make the essay about 350 words, or more if you get going. Good luck, Mr. S.

Lesson Plans

These lesson plans help you integrate learning about works of art in your classroom. Select an option below to browse lesson plans by grade, or continue scrolling to see all lesson plans.

Lesson plans for elementary school students

Lesson plans for middle school students

Lesson plans for high school students

Elementary School

Ancient Animals at Work

Identify ways animals (past and present) enhance daily life through a close look at an ancient figurine and art making.

Animal-Inspired Masks and Masquerades

Help students understand the connections between art and the environment of Guinea, animal anatomy, and the cultural context of the Banda mask with the help of viewing questions and a dance activity in the Museum's African Art galleries.

Armor—Function and Design

Identify moveable and static features of armor as well as functional and symbolic surface details and examine similarities and differences between human and animal "armor" through classroom viewing questions. Enhance the lesson with a sketching activity based on an English suit of armor in The Met collection.

The Astor Chinese Garden Court

Explore the Museum's Astor Chinese Garden Court and enhance students' understanding of how traditional Chinese gardens reflect the concept of yin and yang and how material selection and design can convey ideas about the human and natural worlds. Use viewing questions and a storytelling or drawing activity in the Museum's Chinese galleries.

The Burghers of Calais

Convey the interpretive significance of pose and expression in the visual arts—in the Museum or the classroom—with viewing questions and a story-writing activity inspired by a nineteenth-century French sculpture by Auguste Rodin.

Medieval Beasts and Bestiaries

Explore the use of animals as symbols in medieval art with viewing questions and a group drawing activity at The Met Cloisters or in the classroom.

Power in Ancient Mesopotamia

Examine how a great ancient Mesopotamian king conveyed power and leadership in a monumental wall relief in the Museum's Ancient Near Eastern art collection and consider how leaders today express the same attributes through viewing questions and an activity.

The Nomads of Central Asia—Turkmen Traditions

Students will be able to identify ways art of the Turkmen people of Central Asia reflects nomadic life and understand the functional and symbolic role objects play in their lives.

Voices of the Past

Focus on a slit gong in the Museum's Oceanic collection to illustrate the impact of scale in works of art, and consider objects' functions in their original contexts and ways different communities engage with their elders and ancestors. Classroom viewing questions and an oral history activity enhance the lesson.

Middle School

Aeneas, Art, and Storytelling

Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid , has inspired generations of artists and writers. Create your own artwork inspired by the text and consider how artists draw upon and reinterpret stories from the past.

Architecture and the Natural World

How can buildings reflect the relationship between people and the environment? Explore possibilities in this lesson plan featuring an ancient Egyptian temple.

Art and Empire—The Ottoman Court

Students will be able to recognize ways a tughra functioned as a symbol of power and authority within a culturally diverse and geographically expansive empire.

The Battle of David and Goliath

Illuminate strategies for conveying stories through images in the classroom with viewing questions about a large silver plate in the Museum's Medieval collection and an illustrating activity.

Beyond the Figure

Consider how artists convey personality in nonfigural portraits and the relationship between visual and verbal expression by looking at a painting by Charles Demuth in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries and through a portrait-making activity in the classroom.

Bravery Stands Tall

Examine a major turning point in the American Revolution through a close look at this depiction of General Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River.

Composing a Landscape

Study the relationship between the human and natural worlds in art, as well as the techniques artists use to convey ideas, by exploring a painting by Frederic Edwin Church in the Museum's American Wing. Extend the lesson through a writing and drawing activity in the classroom, or a sketching activity outdoors.

The Making of a Persian Royal Manuscript

Students will be able to identify some of the key events and figures presented in the Persian national epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings); make connections between the text and the illustrated pages of the manuscript produced for Shah Tahmasp; and create a historical record of their community.

The Mughal Court and the Art of Observation

Students will be able to recognize ways works of art reflect an intense interest in observation of the human and natural world among Mughal leaders; and understand ways works of art from the past and present communicate ideas about the natural world.

Muses vs. Sirens

Through movement and storytelling, uncover the layers of meaning embedded in a Roman sarcophagus.

Point of View in Print and Paint

Explore ways that viewpoint shapes the way we picture the past in this lesson plan featuring a depiction of the abolitionist John Brown.

The Power behind the Throne

Bring the Museum's African collection into the classroom with viewing questions and an art-making activity that cultivate visual analysis and an understanding of how surface detail and composition can express themes of power and leadership.

A Rite of Passage

Explore the ways rituals, ceremonies, and rites of passage play an important role in communities around the world through an investigation of related objects.

Science and the Art of the Islamic World

Students will be able to identify similarities and differences between scientific tools used now and long ago; and use research findings to support observations and interpretations.

Shiva—Creator, Protector, and Destroyer

Inspire students to interpret, communicate through, and personally connect with art through an in-classroom examination of a powerful sculpture in the Museum's Indian art collection and a self-portrait activity.

High School

Ancient Mesopotamia—Literacy, Now and Then

From cuneiform inscriptions to digital tablets, this lesson highlights changes and continuity in written communications across the ages.

Arabic Script and the Art of Calligraphy

Students will be able to identify visual qualities of several calligraphic scripts; recognize ways artists from the Islamic world engage various scripts to enhance works of art supporting a range of functions; and assess the merits of several computer-generated fonts in supporting specific uses.

The Art of Industry

Use viewing questions and a debate activity to investigate the relationship between art and community values, techniques artists use to convey ideas, and strategies for interpreting an American painting in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries.

Above: Writing board (detail), ca. 1981–1802 B.C. Middle Kingdom. Dynasty 12. From Egypt; Said to be from Upper Egypt, Thebes or Northern Upper Egypt, Akhmim (Khemmis, Panopolis). Wood, gesso, paint, 16 15/16 x 7 1/2 in. (43 x 19 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1928 (28.9.4)

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Art Museum Lesson Plan

Please note, this lesson plan was created by FieldTripDirectory.com as a general guide and is not specific to any particular venue listed on our site.

– Vincent Van Gogh created over 2,000 works during his lifetime. However, he was only ever able to sell one of his paintings while he was alive.

– Leonardo Da Vinci was left-handed. He took notes from right-to-left instead of the English language standard left-to-right.

– Pablo Picasso was arrested and questioned regarding the theft of Mona Lisa in 1911. He was released without being charged.

– In late 1961, Henri Matisse’s painting “Le Bateau” was hung upside down at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for 46 days before anyone noticed.

BEFORE YOU GO

An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art forms, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, filmmaking, and architecture. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects in art museums, galleries, and exhibits; however, sculptures, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costumes, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artist’s books, photographs, and installation art are also regularly shown.

Major art periods:

• Renaissance: 1300-1602
• Romanticism: 1790-1880
• Modern: 1860-1960
• Contemporary: 1960-

Have a general discussion with your students regarding the type of art museums, type of exhibit, and what period of art and artists they will be viewing. Most museums offer educational materials to help prepare your students for the visit. Many are online and you can download teacher and student material to enhance lesson plans before and after your field trip.

Learn about art periods and the culture and history of that period

Learn about artists and their work

Learn about art museums and the staff that work there

Portrait – a picture of a person

Landscape – a picture of the land

Sculpture – a statue

Still-Life – a picture of fruit, vegetable, flowers on a table

Collage – a picture made of many pieces

Abstract – a piece of art that you use your imagination to create

Impressionism – a style of painting that began in France around 1870, that uses spots of color to show the effects of different kinds of light, and that attempts to capture the feeling of a scene rather than specific details

Photograph – a picture taken with a camera

Mural – a very big picture

Ceramics – Vases, pots, and bowls made out of dirt

Sketch – a picture made with a pencil

Watercolor Painting – a picture made with a light-weight water paint

Oil Painting – a picture made with oil paint that is brighter and darker than watercolor paint

Masterpiece – a great book, painting, a piece of music, movie, etc.

Exhibit – an object or a collection of objects that have been put out in a public space for people to look at: something shown in an exhibition

Collection – a group of interesting or beautiful objects brought together in order to show or study them

Gallery – a room or building in which people look at paintings, sculptures, etc.

–  Analytic

– Hands-on art activities

– Observation

– Vocabulary development

– Writing

• Create your own classroom museum with changing exhibits of students work.
• Review various art periods. Have students pick their favorite artist from that period and write a report on them.
• Discuss what staff comprises a museum:

– Administrative Staff – Curator – Development Director – Education Director – Executive Director – Finance Director – Guards – Marketing and Communication – Custodial – Publications – Café Operations – Docents

Introduction to Modern Art – Week 8 Assignment

Virtual Gallery Visit

For your final project, you will complete a virtual art museum visit and thoroughly discuss three works. Please pay close attention to the following assignment criteria.

Go to this gallery website for referencing your Final Project.

You should already be familiar with this website from your previous weeks’ work. As you may have remembered, the site is broken down by dates. Cruise the dates and artworks located in those eras of art influence and address the following final project guidelines:

1.            Be  no less  than three pages, but no more than four pages in length.

2.            Compare and contrast three artworks in which you will relate  specific terminology and facts  from your textbook and glossary readings.

3.            Discuss the relevance and/or influence of each work to history/art history (via historical context,  i.e  What was going on in the world at that time that influenced the works and/or vise, versa?).

4.            Include a minimum of three resources per work of art  from the book and/or internet to support your claims.

5.            Include a  citation for each source  used.

6.            Incorporate  correct art history vocabulary  in your examination.

View your assignment rubric .

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