At the Millard Sheets Art Center
Grades: Primary
Before your visit
*Have a discussion with students about the different types of art and what artists use to make art. Is it paintings, photography,
wood, glass, clay, paper, etc.? What kinds of art materials have they used in the past, and what did they make?
*Introduce and define the terms medium, media and mixed media (and maybe compare it to multimedia). Show students various
artworks and have them decide whether they're made with one medium, and what it might be, or if they're mixed media and what
those might be.
*Ask students if they have ever made mud pies. Have they ever heard of mud volcanoes? What do they think a mud volcano does?
*Talk with students about plants and how they are used for everyday objects, like clothes. Read a book about plants and their
fibers, focusing on cotton, jute, ramie or flax. Have students draw a picture of a cotton plant with a piece of clothing made from
cotton.
During your visit
*Watch one of the artists demonstrate creating their artwork. Ask them which medium/media they are working with, or like to
work with; and whether they create mixed media artwork.
*Find the mud volcano display and look at the different pictures; do they look like volcanoes? See if you can find a group of
paintings in the main gallery that are rock formations. How do they differ from the pictures of the mud volcanoes?
*Look around the Textile Garden and see if you can find the cotton. Is there anything else growing in the garden you are familiar
with?
*Find the "Trophy Wall" of animal heads and describe what you see. Which one is your favorite?
After your visit
*Discuss the type of media or mixed media the artist demonstrator used while students watched them.
*Have students create their own mixed media artwork.
*Have students talk about the differences and similarities between the mud volcanoes they saw and the paintings of the rock
formations.
*Have students create either the Cotton Life Cycle or the Cotton Puppet:
http://www.agintheclass.org/Portals/0/LessonFiles/cotton_life_cycle.pdf
http://www.cottonsjourney.com/teacher/infoteach.asp?uid=3
The Great Art
Hunt
The More You Look, the More You See!
Can you find this piece of art in the Main Gallery? What is it?
Look at the other artwork made by the same artist. Which is
your favorite piece; why?
Find this painting and notice its surface qualities.
Texture is one of the elements of art, which are the building
blocks artists use to create their artwork. How do you think
the artist created this texture? Do you think texture is
important to her artwork? Look around to see if you can find
other examples of artwork with texture.
Look for this piece of art. What is it? What is it made of?
Can you tell a story about this piece (who, what, where, when)?
Artwork that allows viewers to create their own story is called
Narrative Art.
Look around the gallery and see if you can find other pieces of
narrative art; make up a story about your favorite piece.
Find this painting. Do you think it represents a real
location?
Artwork that looks like the natural object its depicting is
called Representational Art.
Do you see any other representational art in the
gallery?