#ArtsEd on the West Coast: 4 Great Resources in California
For this week's #ArtsEd focus, we’re headed to the West Coast to spotlight major art institutions in California and their engagement with their local communities:
Art School on the Radio
Who knew that public radio could be a great visual art resource? Enter Art School, KQED Public Media’s video series, whose content ranges from studio visits with Bay Area artists to how-to-make-it videos about artistic technique. Segments like “Form” teach visual literacy - a great way to learn about abstract art (like our Line, Form and Color category). Their weekly public TV program, Spark, offers great educator guides with lesson plans focused on the work of local artists.
Closed but Still Open
SFMoMA, closed for a major renovation, answers the question “what is a museum without a building?” with SFMoMA on the Go, a range of off-site programming that has kept the collection in active circulation. The #playartfully project encourages people to discover hidden art games all over the Bay Area and share their finds on social media. “Closed, but more open than ever”, the museum keeps an active blog, OpenSpace, authored by a rotating cast of artists, writers and curators who give the dish on what’s happening in the arts on the ground level.
Kids as Tour Guides
The Hammer Museum’s education department recently put on a series of Renegade Tours - led by kids. Inspired by Andrea Fraser’s Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk (1989), an iconic work of Institutional Critique that was on view earlier this year at the Hammer, museum educators led family viewing workshops, after which the kids spoke about an artwork of their choice, complete with spectacles and microphone. Watch all of the critical cuteness here.
Localized Lesson Plans
The Oakland Museum of California has great resources for teachers who want to engage students in learning about the Bay Area’s art producers. Their Giant Robot curriculum, for example, offers a 7-unit lesson plan that covers topics such as “Telling Your Story Through Pop Culture”, “Lowbrow art”, and “Gender Perceptions in art”.
Check out todays #EduTues tweet up from the Queens Museum which asks "How can the arts engage a non-degree/unemployed population and encourage the next generation of leadership?"
