The Art Museum Insider

Learn to appreciate art wherever you encounter it. Analyze art confidently and form your own conclusions. Learn to think like an art historian.

Become a confident and empowered art viewer by learning to appreciate art.

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.

The Art Museum Insider 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.

Components

Recognize the many choices artists make in creating artworks and how they effect our visual and psychological experiences.

Meaning

Discover the many kinds of meanings artworks can convey and some of the ways you can interpret them.

Learn

Practice skills, such as describing what you see and visual interpretation, that will make you a savvier consumer of images everywhere.

Engagement

Look closely, think critically, and form your own conclusions about art through prompts, questions, and activities you can use during a live museum visit.

How this book is different

This isn’t an art history course, so you won’t learn about specific artists, artworks, or styles. Instead, you’ll learn to think like an art historian – to analyze art for yourself rather than simply memorizing names, dates, and other information. You’ll practice skills, like visual analysis and artwork comparison, not typically taught outside the art history classroom. Although not a total substitute for traditional, fact-based art history, this approach will help you interpret any type of art you choose, without years of study.

Details

Format: An 88-page downloadable pdf handbook with color images.

Your purchase (off-site via Etsy) allows unlimited downloads and prints for one user only.
If you’re interested in licensing this handbook for a group, contact me for more information.
Your purchase and use of this handbook are governed by my Terms of Service.

Up Your Art Museum Game

Buy The Art Museum Insider and Be the Critic: Evaluate Museum Exhibitions together and save 15%. The discount will automatically be applied when you add both handbooks to your Etsy cart.

Accolades

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Japanese print of a black-and-white sparrow flying downward on a yellow background.

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.”

Female self portrait holding a medallion

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.”

Online School for Art Lovers