Tips for Teachers
What is Artsearch?
Artsearch is a curriculum-based program that has been designed for Grade 6 teachers and students in the Windsor/Essex region. It has two main components: a resource guide that teachers can print off this website and/or use as an interactive tool in their classroom; and a two-hour visit to the Art Gallery of Windsor which includes a docent-led tour and studio activity. Both the guide and the gallery visit use the theme of landscape to explore several subject areas: Visual Art; Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication; Science and Technology (Life Systems — The Diversity of Living Things); and Heritage and Citizenship (Aboriginal Peoples and European Explorers). Teachers are asked to prepare their students for the gallery visit by completing one or two Pre-Visit Lesson Plans. They are also encouraged to develop the knowledge that students gain from the gallery visit by completing one or two Post-Visit Lesson Plans. The extent of preparation and follow-up that teachers do with their class remains at the teachers’ discretion.
Interested in Participating in the Artsearch program?
If you are a grade 6 teacher in the Windsor/Essex region, please call 519-977-0013, ext. 103 to book a date/ time for your gallery visit. You will need to indicate 2 or 3 possible dates/time that are most convenient for your visit, and will be notified once your visit has been booked. Payment is required upon arriving at the AGW for your tour/studio. Please make cheques payable to the Art Gallery of Windsor (Artsearch Program).
Visiting the AGW
The AGW Education and Public Programs Coordinator will notify you of the date/time of your visit, and will send you a current Gallery Guide and information about Gallery rules and procedures. Shortly before this visit, an Artsearch docent will also contact you to answer any last-minute questions that you have, and to determine whether you wish to emphasize a particular aspect of landscape art in your gallery tour.
Please plan to have one adult chaperone per 10 students in your class. These adults will be called upon during the gallery tour and studio to supervise students as well as to accompany students to the Uncommon Market Gift Shop and washroom as needed.
Before arriving at the AGW, please provide name tags to your students (masking tape works well!) to help docents interact with them during the tour and studio visit. As well, do take some time to review gallery rules with your students prior to your visit. These rules are as follows:
- eating in the gallery is prohibited except for in designated areas
- chewing gum is not permitted in any area of the gallery
- artworks must not be touched and students should maintain a safe, arm’s length distance from the artworks at all times
- running and excess noise are not permitted in the gallery
- should students wish to use the washroom, they must be accompanied by an adult
- small groups of 4 or 5 students are allowed in the Uncommon Market Gift Shop if an adult accompanies them.
Please note that while lunch is not included in the Artsearch program, a room can be made available to students who bring bagged lunches. This room must be booked in advance. Be sure to notify the AGW of your lunch plans when requesting your tour.
After the Gallery Visit
When you return to your classroom, you will have the opportunity to complete one or two Post-Visit Lesson Plans. We also encourage you to send us feedback from you, chaperones, and students regarding your gallery visit. Please feel free to use the Contact Us page on this website to format, print, and mail back your responses or to email us directly. We also ask that teachers complete a questionnaire about the Artsearch program. Questionnaires are available on this website, and can be printed off and mailed to the AGW Education Department. Teachers who have not completed a questionnaire by the end of each school term will be contacted and given the opportunity to do so.
Tips for Looking at Artworks
It may sound simplistic, but the key to interpreting artworks — and to getting students interested in talking about them — is taking the time to look at them closely and to keep asking questions along the way. A good place to start might be to consider the following details:
- what is being depicted in the artwork? Can you see a landscape? Can you tell where this landscape is?
- what time of day or year is depicted in the artwork?
- can you see any people, buildings, or animals in the landscape? If so, how would you describe them?
- can you tell what kinds of materials the artist used to create the work?
- would you know how to classify this work? Is it a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, a piece of installation art, a video, etc.?
You might then consider your personal responses to the work:
- what kinds of emotions do you feel when you look at this work?
- what ideas, associations, or memories come to mind when you look at this work?
It’s now helpful to start asking “why” questions:
- why might you feel such emotions when you look at the work? What has the artist done to influence you in this way? (Used a particular technique? colour? texture? shape? theme? arrangement of forms? medium? something else?)
- why might such ideas, memories, or associations come to mind when you look at this work? What has the artist done to influence you in this way? (Used a particular technique? colour? texture? shape? theme? arrangement of forms? medium? something else?)
- why might the artist have chosen to use such techniques, colours, and so on? Do such features seem to convey a particular attitude about the subject matter? Do they seem to express a particular message, whether personal or social?
You might then connect your answers to the above questions by considering the contexts of the work. (This part might require a bit of research):
- when was the work created? Does this date seem to have significance in terms of the materials chosen, the subject matter, and so on?
- is the artist a male or female? Does this identity seem relevant to the work in any way?
- what nationality is the artist? Does this identity seem to be relevant to the artwork?
- what cultural, religious, or ethnic identity does the artist have? Does this identity seem to be expressed in a relevant way in this artwork?
- what social class does the artist come from? Is this identity relevant to the artwork in any way?
Getting answers to all these questions is not essential. What is essential is that you and the students start trying to connect what you see to why it might be present in the work and what kinds of effects it might have.
In short, it’s not all that helpful to stop your investigation of the artwork once you’ve listed off the elements or principles of design you find in it. Try suggesting what purposes these elements or principles might serve. Remember that the artist made choices at every step of the artwork’s creation. It’s our job as viewers to consider why these choices might have been made.