Ten Questions to Ask Your Kids About Art
The Generic Art Game
Want to talk to your kids about art? Pick a piece of art and ask your child whether or not he or she likes it. Why or why not? Remember to tell your child that there are no right answers!
1. Look carefully at the work of art in front of you. What colors do you see in it? Take turns listing the specific colors that you see (for example: "I see red." "I see purple.")
2. What do you see in the work of art in front of you? Take turns listing the objects that you see (for example: "I see an apple." "I see a triangle.")
3. What is going on in this work of art? Take turns mentioning whatever you see happening, no matter how small.
4. Does anything you have noticed in this work of art so far (for example: colors, objects, or events) remind you of something in your own life? Take turns answering.
5. Is this work of art true to life? How real has the artist made things look?
6. What ideas and emotions do you think this work of art expresses?
7. Do you have a sense of how the artist might have felt when he or she made this work of art? Does it make you feel one way or another?
8. Take a look at the other works of art displayed around this one. Do they look alike? What is similar about the way they look (for example: objects, events, feelings, the way they are made)? What is different?
9. What would you have called this work of art if you had made it yourself? Does the title of the work, if there is one, make sense to you?
10. Think back on your previous observations. What have you discovered from looking at this work of art? Have you learned anything about yourself or others?
Now that the game is over, ask your kids again: Do you like this work of art? Why or why not? Has your reaction to the work changed? Do you like it more or less than you did in the beginning? Why?
The Generic Art Game was created by Project Muse (Museums Uniting with Schools in Education), at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The group can be reached via email, at Project_MUSE@pz.harvard.edu. Original copyright 1991, Davis.Copyright 1993, Harvard Project Zero. Reprinted with permission from the MUSE Book, Davis, 1996.
