Taft Museum of Art [OH]

Description

The Taft Museum of Art is housed within the circa 1820 Palladian-style Federal Baum-Longworth-Taft House; and its collections include European paintings and decorative arts, American paintings, and Chinese porcelain. Major artists represented in the collection include Dutch Golden Age painter and etcher Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch Golden Age portrait artist Frans Hals (circa 1580-1666), Spanish printmaker and painter Francisco Goya (1746-1828), English painter and landscape artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), English Grand Manner portrait artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), French Neoclassical painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), American painter James Whistler (1834-1903), and American portrait artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

The museum offers exhibits, research library access, 45-minute to one-hour guided tours, self-guided tours, audio tours, children's workshops, a pre-professional high school arts education program, studio programs, lectures, educational programs which complement Ohio and Kentucky educational standards, summer camps, Scout programs, and a teacher resource center with materials for rental. Four weeks advance notice is required for school tours; and two weeks are needed for sensory tours tailored to individuals with hearing, visual, or developmental impairments. The website offers coloring pages.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [MA]

Description

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents 30 centuries of decorative arts, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, and other works of art. Collections include more than 2,500 works; and particular strengths include Italian Renaissance paintings and works by James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Other artists represented include Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, and Degas. The museum also supports modern art, music, and scholarship.

The museum offers exhibits, lectures, educational programs, self-guided tours, thematic guided tours for students, and audio tours. Reservations are required for school tours. The website offers partial collection listings with images, virtual exhibits, podcasts, audio files of classical music, and inspiration for ways to include the museum in classroom curricula.

The Yellow Room and Macknight Room are currently closed for preservation.

Picturing America

Image
Annotation

Twenty-seven iconic images in American history are presented here, designed specifically to encourage educators to use images as primary source documents in the classroom. The images range in time from 17th-century depictions of the Catholic mission in San Antonio to the contemporary art of Washington, DC native Martin Puryear.

Also included are the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," and Hiram Powers's statue of Benjamin Franklin, as well as works by artists such as Grant Wood, George Catlin, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Edward Hopper, and by photographers Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. All images are accompanied by a brief annotation providing historical context, a biography of the artist, and a list of online resources offering further contextual information, lesson plans, and classroom activities. Images enlarge to fullscreen and are searchable by artist and by theme: Leadership, Freedom & Equality, Democracy, Courage, Landscapes, and Creativity & Ingenuity.