Expert guidance from an art historian
These handbooks are for you if
- You wish you felt more confident when you look at art and architecture.
- You enjoy art but don’t fully grasp its meaning and significance.
- You don’t have a formal art history education and feel like you’re missing out.
- You feel out of place in art museums and worry that everyone knows it.
If so, you’ve come to the right place!
What you’ll get from my handbooks
- Become a confident and empowered art viewer.
- Feel at home in art museums.
- Learn to think like an art historian – without years of formal training.
- Form your own opinions and interpretations about visual images – from paintings to magazine covers and more!
Check out the handbooks below!
The Art Museum Insider
Become a confident and empowered art viewer.
Great art can stimulate our senses, bring the past to life, and help us see the world through different people’s eyes. It reveals our shared humanity, promotes empathy, and even has mental health benefits. However, art can also feel confusing and inaccessible to those unfamiliar with its history and terminology.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. In The Art Museum Insider, you’ll learn to appreciate art with confidence. You’ll discover the fundamental building blocks of art (like color, composition, style, and subject matter), how they work together to create meaningful artworks, and how you can analyze art for yourself. These skills and information won’t make you an expert or give you all the answers, but they will help you have satisfying experiences with artworks and form your own conclusions about them through your observations, intellect, and curiosity.
This 88-page handbook is designed for anyone who wants to have more satisfying and meaningful experiences with art. Prior experience in art or art history is not necessary.
The Art Museum Adventure Guide
Expert Guidance for Confident Museum Visits
Visiting an art museum is a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in a world of beautiful and fascinating visual arts. However, it can also be an intimidating prospect for inexperienced visitors.
The Art Museum Adventure Guide is designed for those interested in visiting art museums but not yet confident in doing so – like travelers, students, novice art enthusiasts, and new city dwellers. By explaining what to expect, how to fit in, and how to approach art as a newcomer, this handbook can help you have great art museum experiences that you’ll be keen to repeat.
What you’ll learn
- Understand the different types of museums and collections.
- Simple preparation for a worry-free experience.
- Suggestions for what to wear and bring (and not bring)
- How to find your way around the museum (and where to even start)
- Best ways to avoid burnout
- The scoop on guided tours, guide apps, and wall texts
- Basic tips for connecting with art and understanding what you see
- Museum etiquette and rules: why they exist and how to follow them
- Why art museums are for everyone – including you!
The Art Lover’s Travel Guide
Your dream art-viewing vacation is within reach.
Traveling is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy masterpieces of art and architecture, make lifelong memories, and experience the history and culture of your destination. But like most other aspects of the travel process, it can also be a little overwhelming for experienced art lovers and interested novices alike.
But in The Art Lover’s Travel Guide, you’ll get practical, art historian-approved advice that puts your dream art-viewing trip within reach. Written with the concerns of both veteran and less experienced art viewers in mind, this handbook sets you up for art travel success from the planning stages to the actual adventure.
What You’ll Learn
- Guidance about evaluating your itinerary options, deciding what to see, and practicalities to consider ahead of time.
- Suggestions about what to read before you visit to get context and background for what you’re about to witness.
- Pacing yourself, planning vs. spontaneity, and helpful tips for understanding art and architecture that’s totally new to you.
Who it’s for: Travelers eager to see great art and architecture – prior experience not required.
Be the Critic: Evaluate Museum Exhibitions
Understand the messages that art exhibitions share with their viewers.
With stories to tell and ideas to propose, good exhibitions can make you see art in completely new ways. Be the Critic: Learn to Evaluate Museum Exhibitions helps you experience them to the fullest by teaching you to judge them for yourself.
This handbook introduces you to the major components of art exhibitions – the choices that together add up to an exhibition with a point of view – then guides you to confidently and thoughtfully evaluate what you observe.
What you’ll learn
- Ideas: Learn to identify exhibitions’ main themes, ideas and viewpoints.
- Components: Recognize how exhibitions develop their ideas through design, texts, objects, and more.
- Judge for Yourself: Consider suggested questions and topics, then try your hand at critiquing exhibitions for yourself.
Who it’s for: Art enthusiasts who are comfortable thinking critically about what they see in museums and are looking to get better understand the themes and messages within art exhibitions.
Accolades
Click here to read disclaimer
Belinda O.
Longtime reader
“I’ve followed [Alexandra Kiely’s] blog for years now, and I can tell you, she knows what she’s talking about.”
Erika Gaffney
Art books editor and Art Herstory founder
“I love the way that you wear your knowledge lightly, and emphasize the accessibility (and relevance) of art to everyone.”
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