Art galleries provide often-overlooked free opportunities to see art in person. Their perceived snobbishness and exclusivity often stop people from taking advantage of them, but that attitude is not always accurate in my experience. Art galleries are basically stores that sell art, and they are generally a lot less intimidating than you might think.
Category: Art Appreciation 101
Learn to evaluate museum exhibitions in this downloadable guide
I'm so pleased to announced the latest offering in my The Art Museum Insider online learning series. Be the Critic: How to Evaluate Museum Exhibitions is your guide to understanding the messages that art exhibitions share with their viewers.
Seven Tips for Studying Art History on Your Own
There are lots of resources out there for people who want to study art history on their own. However, structure and guidance are harder to come by, so here is my best advice for getting the most out of your art history self study.
Art Appreciation Activities Handout
Sign up to receive a handout with nine fun art appreciation activities for all ages. These games and challenges will help you connect with artworks and practice key art appreciation skills like attention to detail, comparison, and visual description in the process. I hope you'll have as much fun trying them as I had dreaming them up!
How Viewing Art is Good for Your Mental Health
Studies suggest that looking at art can be good for mental health. It can increase happiness, decrease stress and anxiety, and improve cognitive skills. Art can also help us be mindful and connect us to the past.
New Course Teaches Visually-Based Art Appreciation
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.
Introducing Online Courses with The Art Museum Insider
This just in: You can now take online courses about art at my new Teachable school, The Art Museum Insider! A short course about museum visits is already available, and more are coming soon.
How To Teach Children About Art History
I wasn't a big art lover as a child, but there's no reason other kids won't be. Here are my ideas for how to introduce children to art history.
Connect with Art During Worldwide Shutdown
DailyArt Magazine is currently publishing a series of articles recommending ways of connecting to art from home. Here are my contributions to this project, which I'm really proud to be part of.
Seeing Old Art With Modern Eyes
While discussing the difficult questions art restoration poses concerning artworks' original states, noted Leonardo da Vinci scholar Martin Kemp made a great observation about the tricky nature of the "original". It seems obvious when I see it written in front of me, but I can't say I had considered it much before.
A Scholarly Skater 