Practice Looking at Art – Anywhere!

We can practice looking at art anytime and anywhere.

Even if we cannot get to a museum or cARTie pop-up this week or next, we can try to seek our arts-looking experiences in our daily lives.

Our children benefit from these kinds of aesthetic encounters, and here’s how we can prepare for success.

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Build upon your last cARTie at home activity, and put on your cARTie Artist Hats.

This cARTie at home activity is a great scaffold upon your last (see blog post: Make Your Own cARTie Artist Hat). When you and your child(ren) made cARTie Artist Hats, we suspect you started to discuss what it means to be an artist and look at art. Now, we encourage you and yours to go further.

Similar to playing pretend and dress-up, putting on your cARTie Artist Hats allows you and yours to tap into another way of being. With art literally on the mind, you and your child(ren) can start to look around your home and neighborhood for beautiful things and discuss what you see.

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Scan the room with a prompt: What catches your eye?

Whether it's a painting in your living room or an arrangement of rocks and leaves that looks appealing, there is art all around. Model interest in finding aesthetically-pleasing arrangements and see what else your child(ren) find.

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Follow up with inquiry-led, open-ended questions:

What makes this art to you?

What do you like about this piece?

How do you think this was made?

What's going on here?

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Get closer. Then further away. What else do you see?

Staying with the same arrangement and/or work of art, try to look at it from different perspectives. How does it change when you stand further away? What about as you get closer? Like really close!? How else could you look at this piece?

Try to model playful inquiry with your child(ren). There is no wrong way to look at art. Rather, the more we look, the more we see. And when we hold space to discuss openly, the more we see, the more we can train our eyes and brains to think critically and creatively.

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Here are some key question starts to keep in your back pocket:

“Can you tell me more about that?”

“What makes you say that?”

"Can you show me what you mean?"

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Don't forget to document!

As you follow along and participate in looking at art all around, try to stay curious and open to your child(ren)'s perceptions of what art is (you never know what new ways of thinking they may suggest!).

With whatever scrap paper you have around, try to write down your child(ren)'s ideas and reflections. Making their thinking and learning visible in this way is not only interesting for you, but validating for them; they do indeed have important contributions! 

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We can't wait to see what notes and ideas you all come up with.

Maybe post a picture on social media.

Tag us @CTcARTie!