Art Making and Meaning:
Understanding through Questions
Experienced and Informed – Art Specialists’ Understandings
Question for Understanding If you were thinking about making an artwork, how might it look similar to other art you have made or similar to the art of other artists? Objective Students distinguish general cultural understanding from an art specialist’s understanding. Activity Ideas for All Students Show the DVD segment, “Experienced and Informed,” asking students to take note of the qualifications or credentials of the people whose ideas are presented, for example, art writers, reviewers, or art historians. Give students practice and feedback by using some or all of the interactive “Experienced and Informed” CD activities, which you can project for an entire class or which individual students can view in a computer lab. Students can use the CD to 1) review what they learned on the DVD, 2) apply what they learned to their everyday visual world, and 3) recognize how inquiry into the responses of experts applies to old and new art. In preparation for a short paper or report, ask students to use insights from art specialists to help them more fully understand and appreciate an artist whose work they admire. Reports should include the name of an artist, photocopies or other reproductions of the artist’s work, quotations from at least one art specialist about the work of the artist, identification of the credentials of the art specialist (artist, art historian, museum curator, etc.), and an explanation of how the specialist’s perspective helped the student better appreciate the work. Activity Ideas for Art Students Complementary Activities from Stories of Art Supplementary Online Lessons |