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Art teaching resources you can access anywhere

art teaching resources students can access anywhere

Do you need art teaching resources students can access anywhere? It seems in these strange times that we all need to be prepared to support our students even if not in the classroom. I have lots of worksheets and resources available on this blog which will help. And I’m also putting together here the various websites and downloads that look most useful to me. I’ll aim to add more resources as I find them…

Practical challenges

Firstsite artist activity pack: is a free download of art provocations from contemporary artists including Antony Gormley, Gillian Wearing and Jeremy Deller. The activities do not require specialist materials so there are no excuses not to!

Art UK Home School: there are a number of great activities on here that have been devised specifically for lockdown. Different types of activities and materials feature all with great visual references to artists’ work. Check them out for creative challenges.

Exploration of the Day: a brilliant blog set-up by Keri Smith with a daily art challenge. She has created this as response to the current need that teachers have expressed for support for their students who are not able to get into school. Love this!

Tinkerlab Art Challenge: this daily art challenge was set up for January, but could be used at any time as a provocation to get young people drawing. The download is free.

AccessArt: is a treasure trove of art techniques, ideas and inspiration. You can sign-up but there are also loads of free resources to find, like these great pages on drawing. Enjoy exploring!

Ed Boxall: artist and author who is posting free daily activities on his blog whilst people are home educating due to the corona virus. Creative and fun, the first week’s projects are themed around ‘sea voyages’.

#quarantineartclub with Carson Ellis: lots on creative ideas in these daily art prompts and accompanying hashtag for sharing on social media. Some of the themes so far… make a butterfly, view from your window, who do you love…

Van Gogh shoe drawing artist study cover lesson printable

Museum and Gallery websites

There are a multitude of websites out there which enable students to explore art and design. These are great art teaching resources and you can access them anywhere. Here are the best I’ve found so far:

Tate Kids: is aimed more at KS3 and below. There is a great range of activities presented in a really accessible and fun way. Video’s, games and activities are all included. The option to share work that is produced is also a good way of building community whilst young people are not able to be at school.

Guggenheim Museum, New York: not had the chance to soak up the arts and culture in New York in person? Don’t worry – you can use Google street view technology to access the Guggenheim’s extensive collection from your armchair! This would be very much like a real gallery visit for students. For instance, GCSE and A level students could be challenged to find 4 works of art that would link to their current theme.

British Museum interactive timeline: you can shoot backwards and forwards in time to explore artefacts from around the world on this great virtual tour. I would set a challenge like asking students to choose two objects to compare in terms of appearance and use.

Van Gogh Museum virtual tour: you can get really close up to the paintings using the Google Arts and Culture tour of this museum. It’s perfect if you are studying Van Gogh’s work. You can look at technique, colour and subject matter in great detail with this virtual tour.

Andy Warhol artist research study handout teaching insects

Art videos for young people

There are some really great art videos out there that are suitable for young people. Some are instructional and some support knowledge of different ideas and processes.

Ed Vere illustrator: is doing a new instructional drawing video every Wednesday and Friday. The first is a great simple, clear and characterful invitation for kids to get sketching. I look forward to the next ones…

The Kids Should See This: a curated gallery of videos specifically gathered for young people. They have a really broad range in the ‘Art’ category and 382 videos listed at the time of writing! It might take a bit of time for you to find what you want them to look at… But there is a search function.

TedEd Visual Arts edit: a highly informative and excellent array of videos on a broad range of topics. The videos are designed for young people and the quality is very high. In addition to the videos themselves, there are follow up questions, quizzes and more information. Ones that caught my eye covered topic such as; Islamic geometry, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Frida Kahlo. Almost like mini lessons these are well worth a try.

Heni Talks: cover a truly impressive spectrum of artists and topics. Some of the videos are just 1 minute long, so perfect for a shot attention span! Subjects that caught my imagination were; ‘The Bed in Art’ and ‘What is Land Art’.

Art 21: produces videos of contemporary artists speaking about their work. There is a really interesting range of artists to choose from. Note, though, that the videos are more suitable to GCSE or A level students.

ArtJohn YouTube channel: aimed at artist educators, this channel has some great videos. Well presented, clear and achievable practical activities which you could follow to the letter or adapt.

Sonia Delaunay artist study resource cover lesson worksheet

Downloads and printables

These art teaching resources students can access anywhere would be best printed. But even if used on screen, they provide some great ideas for practical artwork.

Magic Lantern: aimed at Primary-aged children these free download worksheets offer fun ways to interpret and respond to well-known artworks. I’d recommend these quality activities.

Jen Stark colouring pages: mind-boggling psychedelic downloadable sheets to colour. These ones would be great for older kids and could keep you occupied for hours!

Art of Education University: most things on here are not free to download, but this American site has some great resources. This download of 20 ‘finish the picture prompts’ is free.

#ColorOurCollections: free downloadable colouring-in pages from 113 museums around the world. I wouldn’t normally include colouring-in as an art activity to share, but as a mindful activity in potentially stressful times, it could be a useful one.

Dick Blick lesson plans: hundreds of free downloadable pdfs for art and craft activities. These tend to require quite a few specialist materials, but could be adapted to work with what is normally found at home.

Quentin Blake colouring in: fun colouring in pages to download and print. Everyone loves Quentin Blake!

Laura Hughes illustrator: has posted some great downloadable activities and colouring sheets for young artists on her website.

Keith Haring artist research study cover work

Art History reference

If full on practical lessons are not always practical, improving knowledge on artists from different periods in history is perhaps the next best thing. Theses websites have a excellent information presented clearly.

Khan Academy Art History resources: well-illustrated lessons on different periods of art history. You can also find sections on composition and visual elements. Great for boosting students’ confidence with vocabulary and ideas.

Whitney Museum Kids audio: these clips about artworks from the collection are aimed at kids aged 6-10 years old. Lots to explore about a good range of artists.

The Art Story: focuses on Modern Art and artists. The website is extensive and would make a great starting point for a research project. As well as navigating by artist name, you can explore the site by art movement.

MoMA kids audio: 26 short audio clips about paintings in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection. These are written specifically for young people and are a great starting point for your own practical explorations or a theme.

Olafur Eliasson artist study worksheet cover lesson

GCSE and A level Resources

These websites are more specifically relevant to KS4 and 5 students.

GCSE Bitesize: the resources on here are quite old now, but some of the information on the creative process is quite useful. Good too that the clips have been designed for the GCSE specifications.

PhotoPedagogy post 16 lessons: this website is aimed at teachers but would be an excellent resource for KS5 students who wanted to stretch and develop their approach. The lesson plans are focused on photography teaching, but the ideas and approaches would work equally for fine art.

Tate Exam theme help: includes some of the titles from this years’ externally set assignment. The articles are a good way to draw out interesting threads of investigation into the themes. Plus old exam themes are on the website too, so worth checking out too.

Guggenheim Museum Modern Art Books: free online library of over art 200 books which students can search and browse. For older students this could be a great way to widen their knowledge and exposure.

Social media #s

Getting involved with social media is a good way for students to share their work and to feel that they are doing something connected to the wider world. Here are a few hashtags that have been set-up recently to provide a space for sharing.

#cassartstudents: a sharing space for art students to share their work during this time of school closures.

#naturedrawingclub: is a weekly drawing club set-up by the Natural History Museum in London. Every Friday they will announce a new theme (e.g. birds) and people can post and share their art work .

#artclub: Noel Fielding’s weekly art club on Twitter and Instagram. You can tag noelfielding11 who provides a theme each week (e.g. ‘things I love about Italy’) and artwork is shared via the hashtag.

drawing ideas printable download teaching resource

A couple more round-ups

Craft for Home School: a great post from the Crafts Council which highlights online resources with a crafty edge.

NSEAD create: a round-up of resources for remote learning from the National Society for Education in Art and Design, helpfully organised in age categories.

Do let me know if you have any top tips for websites with great art teaching resources. And for more of my teaching resources you can take a look at the felt-tip-pen resources shop.

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