Visual Arts Videos
A Note from the Filmmaker
Craig Kane, Art Educator, P.S. 40 Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Manhattan
Although I created this series of videos with asynchronous learning in mind, I often use them as tools for in-person teaching, as introductions to a lesson or to frame the discussion at the beginning of a longer unit. In either case, I see each one as a starting point or model:
- to demonstrate how to begin an investigation
- as a fresh approach to a previous learning
- to introduce a new way to manipulate a medium and then make it our own.
It is strongly suggested that you view the videos before presenting them to your students. Then incorporate them into your lessons in a way that makes sense to you and fits into your teaching.
The following videos are available for your use:
Frida Kahlo: Inspired Self-Portraits
Stanley Whitney: Exploring Color
Yi Chen: From Collage to Painting
Elizabeth Murray: How Do I Know When I’m Done?
Frida.mp4Frida Kahlo: Inspired Self-Portraits
8m 18s
While conceived as a stand-alone lesson, I framed this with my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders as a culmination of the year’s work and we showed the pieces in our online, end-of-year art exhibition. This video certainly could be part of a deeper unit on self-portraiture, symbolism, or Latin American art and art making.
Stanley and Color.mp4Stanley Whitney:Exploring color
8m 43s
I use this video as an asynchronous lesson with all my elementary grades, but it folds especially well into our 3rd grade abstract art unit. In this unit we investigate the notion of how one painting gives us information to start the next and end up with a series of works that create an abstract narrative.
The concept is applicable to all grades.
Looking at Art.mp4Bob Berlind: Looking at art
6m 29s
Rather than being about making art, this video is about ways of looking at and talking about art. Here we:
- investigate questioning
- learn how to start an art dialogue with ourselves and with others
- discover that through their work, artists have dialogues with themselves and with other artists
Viewing this video could be assigned as an independent project or done before an in-person field trip. It might be fun to do as a class or in groups to facilitate looking and discussion. I provided my students with a fill-in-the-blank worksheet which made it easier for the younger grades to do on their own.
NOTE: This video is applicable to all grade levels.
Yi Chen.mp4Yi Chen: from collage to painting
8m 22s
I use this as an introduction to the collage-to-painting unit. It is a lot of fun, especially in a lesson for 4th and 5th graders where the learning goal can be left open for the students to determine. This is a good way to expand their ideas about figurative painting and portraiture, and about the ways we see people...how we are similar, yet how we all are different. This is relevant in a high school setting as Yi’s work deals with issues of gender and identity. This is a video that take off in a lot of directions!
Elizabeth Murray (final cut).mp4Elizabeth murray: how do i know when i'm done
11m 09s
This begins as a review of the concepts of line and shape—particularly made-up or abstract shapes. It then moves into a discussion of resolution; how does an artist know when to stop and move on to the next work? Included is a clip from a wonderfully honest and approachable interview with the artist Elizabeth Murray. I use this video as an asynchronous lesson, and also as a tool to open up discussion in the classroom. Like the Stanley video, this might mesh with an abstract painting unit, use to investigate line and shape, or to spur a deeper discussion about the artistic process.