New Course Teaches Visually-Based Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation for Beginners, a new online course, teaches newcomers to appreciate visual arts without needing years of art historical study.

Alexandra Kiely and A Scholarly Skater Art History are pleased to announce Art Appreciation for Beginners, an online course about understanding, enjoying, and evaluating artworks. Designed for those without formal education in art history, the course teaches participants to evaluate art based on what they see. This allows them to approach any art form or style intelligently, without years of study or extensive background knowledge. In contrast, most other offerings in this topic take a fact-based approach and focus on a specific time period or style. 

Course creator Alexandra Kiely said:

The aim is to demystify art by giving students a set of skills they can use to analyze and interpret it. This method won’t give them all the information available through intensive art historical study, but it will allow them to connect with any artwork they choose, even if they have no prior knowledge of it. For new art viewers, this method does not require the time and effort commitment of studying art history.

Topics and skills covered by the course include:

• visual building blocks of art;
• close looking;
• describing what you see;
• representational and abstract subject matter;
• comparing artworks to better understand them;
• how art creates different types of meaning;
• the functions and roles artworks can fulfill for makers and owners;
• the elements that go into interpretation;
• forming your own interpretations;
• using these skills in the real world.

Art Appreciation for Beginners is intended for anyone who wants to better understand art, including travelers who want to better appreciate the art of the places they visit, art lovers who want to gain new insights, city-dwellers who want to take advantage of their local art scenes, and anyone who is tired of feeling lost and confused in museums and galleries. It also helps to enhance visual literacy skills, which are more important than ever in today’s visually-saturated world.

The course is now available on the Teachable platform, with a price of $50 for lifetime access. Content is regularly updated and improved so that every student has the best possible experience.