Art Activities to Try

Discover the Art of Building

Frank Lloyd Wright built the Guggenheim Museum in 1959. The Guggenheim Museum is a circular building that was designed and built to stand out from the rest of the buildings in New York City, which were all flat, rectangular skyscrapers. Find a unique home, school, or art center that is accessible for people with all abilities, or design a building that is accessible from your perspective. Draw an original sketch of this building that is inspired by your research and thoughts.

Make Sound Visible

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his most famous orchestral work, the Fifth Symphony, as a symbol of his will to live fully, even with complete deafness. Listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and learn about the style of music and the time in which it was composed. Now, listen to your favorite song and think about the moment in time when it was created. What could you paint or draw to convey the sounds to your friends? Listen to the piece a second time and draw or paint along with the music as it inspires you.

Transform Words into Shapes

Make a visual poem out of nonsense sounds. Use rhyme and repetition to form silly phrases and verses, or sing a song backwards. Kenneth Goldsmith is a word-architect who creates verbal sculpture through his careful layering of verses. Try to use words themselves to shape a poem on paper. Use the text and patterns of the letters to replace your pen and pencil strokes. Chuck Baird is an artist who uses American Sign Language (ASL) within his paintings to allude to the subjects he portrays. Consider ASL as a visual element within your picture to further illustrate its meaning.

Draw a New Dance

Edgar Degas is known for his drawings of ballerinas and horse races. His pictures illustrate the body’s movement and expression through unique poses and positions. Dance with the intention of forming different shapes with your body. Use the concepts of tense/relaxed, curved/straight, long/short, open/closed, small/large. Make sketches of how you felt and how you think your body looked when in these different positions. Homer Avila was a dancer that adapted the ballet for one leg. How might his pose be portrayed in a painting by Degas? Sketch another person with many positions on one page, so that the page records many shapes over time.

Explore Alternative Techniques

Jackson Pollock broke the boundaries of conventional oil painting by pouring or dripping paint onto the canvas, which was stretched out on the floor. Pollock felt more at ease being able to walk around it and felt more a part of the painting process. Make a painting using nontraditional tools, such as sticks, stones, plastic, chopsticks, carpet, etc. Or make body art using different parts of the body to apply the paint or see if you can use your whole body to get into the motion of applying paint.

Additional Art Activities toTry

Beginning:

Body/Kinesthetic — Attend a dance, musical or theatrical performance. Afterwards, try to imitate a character’s movement or dance.

Spatial — Visit a museum or art gallery and identify a piece of art that you like. Discuss with your family or class why you liked it. In your mind, draw the piece of art using your fingertip in the air.

Intermediate:

Interpersonal — Interview artists about their views on the arts in their community and in education. You may also want to ask them about their artwork and why it is important to them.

Musical — Create a new musical instrument. This can be done with objects found around the house, or by building one in clay or wood. Compare the sound to other instruments.

Intrapersonal — Survey your local paper for one or two weeks and clip arts events that you consider important to your community. After your survey, discuss your finding with your family or class.

Advanced:

Linguistic — Write a performance with friends and classmates that parodies a play or movie by creating your own characters and setting them in the plot of the play or movie. Perform your parody without the script.

Logical/Mathematical — Find a unique building in your town or neighborhood and learn about the architectural style in which this building was made. Draw a proportional picture of this building or build a model to scale.