Video: Idea Channel

There's a new video series on Youtube from PBS Arts Online that I just love. The Idea Channel is, "a biweekly web series that examines the evolving relationship between modern technology and art." Or in simple terms, quirky and thoughtful 3 minute videos about art and pop culture. It's a great springboard for discussions and essays--if you're looking for something to spark thoughts on that subject. This is a great resource for your tech savy, pop culture loving teens. The host poses an off the wall question, and then quickly sets out his argument for the answer. I enjoy the fact that they're simple questions yet make you stop for a moment and really think.

Watch a video, respond to the questions posed in each short, maybe find some fresh inspiration or a new perspective on the world around you. Plus, they're just fun to watch!

This video is about Mario, which pretty much every kid has played at least one Mario Bros. game. But it's probably not how you or your kids have ever thought about the video games before: How is Mario like a Salvador Dali painting? Huh? There's more to it than you might think....

Exhibit: Lifelike

My Mom, my younger brother, Andrew, and I went to the Walker tonight to see the current exhibit, Lifelike. On Thursdays after 5pm, admission is free, so all we paid for was parking (which was only a couple bucks). It's fun to walk through the museum when there's so many families there--it's a lot more fun to hear the kids' reactions to things and to have other people to enjoy the art with.

Lifelike is a perfect exhibit to take your children to. I know the Walker can have "weird" art sometimes and some of their shows aren't appropriate for young kids, but this current one is awesome. It's all about playing with our brains.



A comb leaning against the wall....that's five feet tall. A trash bag...carved out of marble. A perfect replica of a milk carton...seven feet tall.

My favorite piece are the giant folding chairs and table:

Doesn't look that big  in this picture, right? Well, watch this 2 minute video to see how many people it took to get this piece into the museum!



This is a great family friendly exhibition that is really neat to see. Don't just settle for looking at the art in the video, it's way more awesome to experience it in person. It's fun trying to figure out what things are made out of, how the artists were able to create their pieces to look so realistic.

Lifelike runs through May 27, 2012. To plan your visit, find directions, and other information check out the Walker's website: www.walkerart.org

Video: Crochet Coral Reef

The "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" started out as a math experiment and has become a world wide art project. How cool is that? I first heard about the project from an article in American Craft Magazine.

What a creative way to get people thinking about the garbage that winds up in the oceans too. It's one thing to say, "There's a lot of plastic junk that gets dumped in the ocean, and that's not a good thing for the environment." People are going to think about that a lot more when faced with beautiful art made out of that same trash.

Video: Off Book - Video Games

I bet you never thought of your kids' video games as art before.



Video games are a huge industry now. Maybe your kid will create the next Mario!

Video: Graphic Design - Now In Production

Here's a video overview of the current exhibition about graphic design at the Walker here in Minneapolis:

Video: Burger Grease Art

Well, that's definitely an unconventional art medium!

Video: Daniel Eatock's Felt-tip Prints

This installation is currently on view at the Walker Art Center through January 22, 2012. I thought it was such an interesting way to make a "drawing." Your kids might like to try to recreate it on a smaller scale.

Resources: National Gallery of Art

I'm learning that major art museums usually have awesome websites with tons of free resources. The National Gallery of Art (NGA) is no exception. I don't even know where to start, because there is just so much awesome to write about. They have an excellent site that is very easy to use (would I really recommend anything else?). There's no superfluous icons or visual clutter, it's just simple and to the point. Everything is easily accessible from the front page, you don't have to click through multiple links to get to the good stuff. And the site is definitely full of good stuff.

I'll begin with what first led me to the site: the Children's Video Tour. This page contains 50 short videos about various paintings in NGA's collection. Unfortunately you can't link to any of them specifically or re-post the videos on another site, but I can understand them not wanting to strain their bandwidth that way. I've watched a handful of them and found each one to be engaging, piquing my interest in the painting discussed.

There's more to watch on the Videos and Podcasts page. The videos here are more documentary-like, longer in length, focusing on individual artists, exhibitions, and other areas. You can also listen to various podcasts as well, which include lectures on a wide range of topics, conversations about particular artists, art movements or works in the collection, and insight into the inner workings of the museum.

You can choose from a plethora of online tours, arranged according to artist, art works, and themes. These would be a helpful addition to your curriculum, giving a fuller understanding of art history. The tours are educational and informative without going over your head.

Speaking of educational, the Education page is probably what will pique your interest the most. The Children's Video Tour, NGA Kids, Learning Resources and Classroom links are handily grouped together under the Resources heading. NGA Classroom has online lesson plans and curriculum guides, ranging from art fundamentals to more specific subjects. The Learning Resources page is "a place to borrow, browse, and download more than 300 resources." What's really nifty is they have a free loan program for teachers and homeschoolers! You can request a catalogue to find out all the materials available to for borrowing. If you don't like teaching art or don't think you can do a good job of it, this is for you. Seriously, it's free and from one of the best museums in the country, how awesome is that?!

And NGA doesn't neglect homeschoolers, they have a page specifically for you! There's a little bit of redundancy here, as all the sections I've reviewed are listed on the Homeschool page as well. But I thought it was worth mentioning, because you can bookmark that one page instead of half a dozen.

Your kids might like this last section, since it's aimed specifically at them: NGA Kids. This page is really interesting in that you can make "interactive art online." I found it to be a bit of a visual overload, not as easy to find links as the rest of NGA's website. However, there are a lot of fun activities to be found here, and your kids might like playing around with all the different games.

Another good website to bookmark for further browsing.

Video: Off Book - Street Art

Off Book is a web only series from PBS. Each video is under 10 minutes and discusses different aspects of modern art, from online culture to light painting to typography. My favorite so far features the street artist Swoon whose work I really love:

Video: Highpoint Editions - Decade One

The Highpoint Center for Printmaking currently has an exhibit on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Here's a sweet little video about Highpoint and the exhibition:

Resources: M.I.A. Youtube channel

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has its own Youtube channel with over 100 hundred videos uploaded so far. There's videos of specific pieces of art, previews of exhibitions, interviews with artists and museum staff, and much more. The videos can help you prepare for a field trip to the MIA or expand your knowledge of something you saw on your last visit.

This is a great resource for your audio-visual learners. It has that multimedia element that the Internet savvy child should enjoy. They're not wandering a "boring" art museum or paging through a mammoth art history tome, it engages them on another learning level.

Here's a video (part 1 of 2) about the period rooms in the museum's famous Asian art collection:

Resources: Family Fun magazine

I was talking with my Mom today about all the fun art projects we made when my siblings and I were little. She told me one of her absolute favorite sources for craft projects is Family Fun magazine. Their website is cheerful and easy to browse, broken into sections that are simple to switch back and forth to. Family Fun's craft area can be browsed by materials (so you can search for something that uses stuff you already have!), type of project, seasonal and holiday activities, and age appropriate skill level (toddlers to tweens). The name of the game here is simple, easy, memorable projects. Each activity is broken down into simple steps with pictures, an estimated time completion, rated by users of the site, and you can leave comments about what you thought of it. You can save crafts to your Family Fun account for later perusal, print off the instructions (for free!), or send to others through Facebook or e-mail. Users can also post their own craft projects to share with everyone else. Family Fun also has a great how-to video section (one of the better ones I've come across). The only annoying thing is that the videos start right away before they've fully loaded. And you will have to sit through 30 second ads before the video plays, but it's worth the wait.
Here's a video about re-using cardboard tubes, something I've made many projects out of over the years (they're surprisingly versatile). I'm not going to post the video here as it does just start on its own, which would be kind of annoying to hear every time the page loads.

Resources: Art 21

Art 21 is my favorite show to watch and re-watch. I always take some new inspiration or idea away whenever I watch it. I was introduced to it by one of my professors at Northwestern College. Each episode focuses on four artists, grouped by a loose theme (ex: memory). I really enjoy watching Art 21, because it helped me learn how to talk about my art. This is what PBS says about their show:
"... the only series on television to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States, and it uses the medium of television to provide an experience of the visual arts that goes far beyond a gallery visit. Fascinating and intimate footage allows the viewer to observe the artists at work, watch their process as they transform inspiration into art, and hear their thoughts as they grapple with the physical and visual challenges of achieving their artistic visions."

I like hearing artists talk about how they make art and what inspires them. Especially artists whose work I don't understand, it helps me grasp their ideas and look at their art in a new way. I can go from, "That looks weird," to "I still think it looks weird, but now I know why the artist made it look that way." I can appreciate their work even if I don't find it that beautiful to look at.
 
I suggest this show for high school students, as some of the themes, discussions and art can contain mature subject matter. Also, Art 21 is definitely for those with some interest in art and a desire to expand their knowledge of the art world. 

The website for Art 21 also has a lot of resources to make use of. You can watch full episodes online, participate in discussions about the art, and, most importantly of all, they have an education section with lesson plans and project ideas. This section also includes an extensive glossary of terms that are used on the show. I highly recommend taking a look at the site. PBS is awesome for making all this information free and easy to access.

Here's a clip about one of my favorite artists, Julie Mehretu (the Walker has an enormous painting of hers in their collection):

Watch the full episode. See more ART:21.

You can also watch clips on Art 21's channel on youtube. It loads a bit faster than the PBS video player, and it's easier to browse through to select something.

Here's a trailer for season 5:

Resources: women in art video

This is a fun little video that got a lot of press a couple years ago. It's a beautiful sequence of women's faces over hundreds of years of art.

Resources: Minnesota Original

TPT recently debuted a new show called Minnesota Original. It's all about the local arts communities here in Minnesota. Each episode is broken up into several segments focusing on different aspects of the arts, from literary to music to drama to visual. It's got something for everyone. Episodes air on Thursdays at 7:30pm on tpt2. Every episode is also posted online at http://www.mnoriginal.org/art. You can watch a full episode or just choose individual segments. A fast internet connection is definitely a must. I like the fact that the site is simple and easy to navigate, with a bar right on top of the page that you can scroll through to find each episode or segment.

Here's a short video about mn original:

What is minnesota original? from mn original on Vimeo.


Educational, entertaining, and pretty darn interesting, it's a great introduction into the vibrant art community here in Minnesota.