Grades/Level: Middle School (6–8), High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts
Time Required: Short Activity
20–30 minutes
Author: J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Activity Overview

This is a follow-up lesson for the Getty Center Guided Lesson Exploring Art Through Writing. This activity will help culminate and extend the visit back into the classroom. Students write a curator's report in order to persuade a board of directors to purchase an artwork for a museum. The class then assumes the role of a board of directors, and decides which objects they would purchase for a museum.

Learning Objectives

Students should be able to:
• look closely at, and think creatively about works of art.
• articulate what a curator's role is in helping museums acquire artworks.
• write a description of a work of art and a persuasive paragraph about why it is important.
• deliberate with peers and make decisions as a group.

Materials

• Image of Sunrise (Marine) by Claude Monet
• Image of Waiting: Dancer and Woman with Umbrella by Edgar Degas
• Image of A Walk at Dusk by Caspar Friedrich

Activity Steps

Before beginning, ask your students to select a work of art that they feel strongly about. They can choose a work of art they saw at the Getty Center, any famous work of art, a public artwork in their community, or their own work of art.

Step 1: Start a group discussion by asking your students what a museum curator does. What is his/her role, and what are his/her responsibilities in an art museum? Depending on your students and the time allotted for this activity, teachers may first want to ask students to research these questions in advance of the group discussion.

Expand on their responses by telling them that a museum curator is responsible for looking after a museum's collections and for deciding how it should be displayed. A curator usually has specialized knowledge of a particular art form or period. Curators are in charge of collecting, conserving, and interpreting the objects in a museum collection.

Step 2: Tell your students that they are going to assume the role of a museum curator. Explain that curators often write reports for a museum's board of directors about objects the institution is considering for purchase. A curator's report typically includes a description of the work of art, information about the artist and style, and an explanation as to why the piece is important and should be purchased. Ask your students to write a three-paragraph curator's report about the work of art they have selected and tell them to attach a picture of the proposed artwork to their summary.

Step 3: Divide the students into small groups. Explain that they will now assume the role of a board of directors. Together they will review a selection of the curator's reports and decide which object they would purchase for their museum. Give the students time to debate their opinions and to vote on the proposals. Ask the students to assign a note taker and a speaker who will present their decision.

Step 4: Debrief together as a group. What curator’s reports were the strongest and most convincing? Why? What are the factors that affected their decision-making process? Was the process difficult or easy? Why or why not?

Extensions

Continue to explore the ways artists interpret stories visually. The following are useful resources for developing lessons on this topic.

Books:
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. New York: Viking Penguin, 1991.

Childer, Pamela B., Eric H. Hobson, and Joan A. Mullin. ARTiculating: Teaching Writing in a Visual World. Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook, 1998.

Hagen, Rose-Marie, and Rainer Hagen. What Great Paintings Say, 4 vols. Cologne: Taschen, 1995–2000.

Janson, H. W. and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art for Young People. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.

Perkins, David N. The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art. Los Angeles: The Getty Center for Education in the Arts, 1994.

Richardson, Joy. Looking at Pictures: An Introduction to Art for Young People. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.

Walsh-Piper, Kathleen. Image to Word: Art and Creative Writing. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2002.

Web Sites:
Resources for the Study of Art History

ArtsEdge

The Children's Literature Web Guide

The Educator's Reference Desk

National Endowment for the Humanities EDSITEment

The Gateway to Educational Materials

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Explore & Learn

The National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)—NGA Kids

Smithsonian Education