Art

Art presents users with over 1,800 HD pieces of artwork. The downloadable works are accompanied with a robust “Feature” PowerPoint that explains the significance of particular artists, pieces, and each of the major art movements. To navigate, pieces are divided by style/period and include descriptions, concepts, and vocabulary. The Gallery function allows users to view all of the app’s available art in one place. The Video section presents the artwork and art movements in an array of playlists (separated by time and period) on YouTube. The search bar aids users in finding a particular piece of artwork.  Users can click the “Random Pic” button under the “More” section to be presented with a random piece of art from the collection. Finally, a slideshow function slowly eases users through all of the pictures for their viewing pleasure.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can have their students use the Art app to create study guides that are organized around a specific theme. To do so, teachers would first have students save a favorite or assigned piece from the app that is part of the theme. Next, students will research and create an overview about that that piece. The overview should include key information about the artist who created the piece, when the piece was created, various critiques of the piece, and other pertinent information. Finally, the teacher can collect and combine the overviews to create a study guide, which can then be distributed to all students as a hard copy or digitally.
2. Students can be paired and instructed to create a keynote project about an artistic time period, style, or influence. Research can be done using the Art app in tandem with the Internet, other apps (e.g., Louvre HD, Color Uncovered, and Encyclopedia Britannica), as well as the already-embedded YouTube videos within the Art app. Students can then collaborate on their presentations via Dropbox or Google Drive. The final projects may take the shape of traditional reports or multimedia presentations, which can then be shared by uploading to a digital learning community like Edmodo, for the teacher and the rest of the class to review.
3. Students can be instructed to compare and contrast two pieces of artwork within the same category in the Art app. Observations and research can be recorded using a word-processing document such as Pages or CloudOn. Students can then share their documents with their teacher using Google Drive, Dropbox, or via email.
4. Teachers can use the Art app for a creative project in which students are to investigate and draw inspiration from the art of a particular movement category. Following, students can be instructed to research the key aspects of this art movement before creating their own artwork that shares characteristics of art from this movement. Finally, students compose a short piece of writing in which they explain how their artwork shares the key aspects of works studied from that particular time period.
5. For an artistic journal prompt, teachers can use the Art app’s “Random Pic” feature to randomly identify a piece of art to project to the class. Students could then be instructed to create a journal entry in which they write about the projected piece of art. To support student writing, example journal prompts could include questions such as what did you like about this picture, how could this picture be improved, would this picture be something you would create if you were the artist and why, and lastly, does this picture remind you of something you have seen before, and if so, please explain.

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