Lesson Plans and Pre-visit Guides

Current search results within: Subject Area, Visual Arts

• 19th-Century European Painting (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the range of artistic styles that developed in response to a period of profound social, political, and cultural transformation, including Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Impressionism. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Animal-Inspired Masks and Masquerades (Lesson Plan)

  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.

• Arabic Script and the Art of Calligraphy (Lesson Plan)

  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.

• Armor—Function and Design (Lesson Plan)

  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 Museum's collection.

• Art and Empire—The Ottoman Court (Lesson Plan)

  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.

• Art of Ancient Egypt (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the art of ancient Egypt, made primarily for religious and magical purposes and reflective of the culture's desire for order, beliefs about eternity, and love of life. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, themes to consider, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the American Wing (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to American art from the early colonial period through World War I. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery maps, tour-planning guidelines, recommendations for engaging students with works of art in the galleries, and suggested works of art to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Americas (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the roots of civilization in the ancient Americas through Precolumbian art created mainly for ceremonial and ritual purposes. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, themes to consider, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Ancient Near East (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to works of art reflecting the rich and complex cultures that flourished for thousands of years across a vast geographical region and gave rise to many features of modern civilization. Use the guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, background information and themes, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world, including both secular and religious works created in a broad range of media over a vast geographic expanse from the seventh to late nineteenth century. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery descriptions, tour-planning tips, discussion questions, suggested works of art, teaching themes, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Beyond the Figure (Lesson Plan)

  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.

• Ceramics in China and the Near East (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to identify ways works of art reflect exchange between Chinese and Near Eastern civilizations; recognize ways animals act as symbols in various cultures; and create a tile that highlights the qualities and traits commonly associated with an animal.

• Composing a Landscape (Lesson Plan)

  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.

• Court Arts of Islamic Spain (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to identify shared visual characteristics among several works of art from Islamic Spain; recognize ways designs are adapted across a range of media; and cite strengths and limitations of various materials.

• Daily Life in Medieval Nishapur (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to recognize ways works of art reflect medieval Nishapur's status as an important center of trade; use visual evidence to support inferences; and apply an original two-dimensional design to a three-dimensional form (in alternative activity).

• Domestic Life in Eighteenth-Century Damascus (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to understand how a reception room from the house of an affluent family in eighteenth-century Damascus reflects the tastes, interests, and life of the urban elite in a provincial city of the Ottoman empire; and recognize ways interiors from different time periods and places (including their own) reflect the personal tastes, interests, and values of their inhabitants.

• Engaging the Elements (Lesson Plan)

  Engage students' interest in the relationships between the human and natural worlds, and art and the environment through a mask-making activity and viewing questions for the classroom about a mask from Alaska in the Museum's Native North American collection.

• European Paintings (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to depictions of the classical world, genre works, landscapes, and still lifes created amid the religious, political, and intellectual shifts in Renaissance through the eighteenth-century Europe. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Geometric Design in Islamic Art (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to use a compass and straightedge to construct regular polygons; and recognize ways works of art from the Islamic world utilize geometric forms and relationships.

• Gods, Goddesses, and the Supernatural (Lesson Plan)

  Enrich students' understanding of how the ancient Assyrians used art to convey messages through a classroom writing and art-making activity and viewing questions related to a monumental sculpture in the Museum's Ancient Near East collection.