Artist Spotlight: Constantin Brancusi
If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that over the summer we’re doing a series of Artist Spotlights in honor of our three new units (which will be available starting with the 2019-2020 school year). Our last Artist Spotlight looked at Robert Smithson, an artist featured in our new fifth-grade Environmental Art unit. This […]
Roberto Benavidez’s Art-Historical Piñatas Are Beyond Cool
What could possibly make piñatas even more fun? According to artist Roberto Benavidez, creating piñatas that reference art historical works. Benavidez, a Los-Angeles-based artist, started work on his Piñatas of Earthly Delights series in 2013. Each piñata in the series references a creature found in 16th-century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch’s tour de force of weirdness, The Garden of Earthly […]
Kids’ Art Reads: Jeanette Winter
If you’re looking for some fresh titles to impress the young readers in your life (while teaching them about art history), look no further than the books of Jeanette Winter. Winter’s picture books, which tell the stories of artists, architects, historical figures, and folks who’ve striven to make a difference in the world, make for some […]
Artist Spotlight: Robert Smithson & Spiral Jetty
As you might have read a few weeks ago, the Art Docent Program is introducing three new units, which will be ready in time for the 2019-2020 school year. In honor of these new units, we’ll be spotlighting a different artist from each unit throughout the summer. As we introduce our new 5th-grade Environmental Art […]
The Art Assignment Should Be Your (Kinda) New Obsession
Maybe we’re a little late to the party, but forgive us—we’ve recently discovered what might be our new favorite YouTube channel. The Art Assignment by PBS Digital Studios, whose videos are available on YouTube or via their website, is a channel full of all the art-related videos you could ever need. And we can’t stop […]
Bouquets to Art at the de Young is Back
In the world of art viewing experiences, the de Young Museum in San Francisco might just boast the greatest of them all with their annual pairing of fresh blooms and artwork, Bouquets to Art. And proving that good things come to those who wait, Bouquets to Art is returning in June this year. One of […]
Make the 2020-2021 School Year Beautiful with Art!
Good news! We have you covered for TK – 6th Grade! Got Home Schoolers? We’ve written a guide for parents. Just register the parents as Docents, and they can participate just like on-site docents. Got Distance Learners? A Docent can fire up Zoom, Google Meets, or any other screen sharing tool from anywhere. Share the […]
Art Reads: The Masterpiece
If you’re a frequent flyer here at the Art Docent Program blog, you’ll probably agree with us when we say that art and architecture have the power to connect people across time. It’s one of the many reasons we’re so passionate about art history. And, luckily for those of you that are big readers, that […]
5 Artists’ Gardens That Are Still Thriving Today
Ahh, springtime…when the world is fresh and blooming, and there’s nothing else quite like it! Many artists, we’re sure, have felt the same way, especially when they’re painting en plein air or from life. After spotting an article in Sunset mentioning Frida Kahlo’s home and garden, we decided to discover a few other gardens that famous artists […]
Get Lost in Meow Wolf’s Artistic Multiverse(s)
If your idea of a contemporary art experience still takes place within the stuffy “white cube” of a gallery, then you clearly haven’t met Meow Wolf. The explosively popular Santa Fe-based collective-turned-multimillion-dollar-corporation is slowly working on transforming the way viewers interact with art, one psychedelic location-specific experience at a time. What exactly is Meow Wolf? […]