My temporary job (while I wait for my career and real grown up life to start) is a nanny for four kids. Their parents are really gung-ho about psychotheraphy and education at home, outside of the catholic school they send the kids to during the year. My job is to make sure they complete two hours of "learning" by doing online math classes, reading, or watching educational shows. The fun thing for me, is that the kids are really interested in art history.
Google has recently started the Google Art Project. Completely for free you can go online and visit most of the world's biggest art museums, like the Art Institute of Chicago, Moma, The Smithsonian and the Tate Modern. Each museum has at least 70 works online. The kids love the fact that while they might be in a suburb of Chicago in their Dad's office, they are also able to travel to Paris via the internet to see art.
As an Arts Administration major at Butler, I am completely geeking out over this. My classmates and I learned about some arts organizations taking the initiative to show more of their collections online, or increase the educational content on their websites. Some opera companies stream performances live into movie theaters around the country. But I haven't seen anything like this.
My one complaint is that although it is simple to search by artist, museum, or the name of a piece of art work, there really isn't any additional information available. It requires outside research or "googling" by the viewer that could easily be included on the site.
All in all, there is something so amazing about hearing a thirteen year old boy shout "Oh cool! Van Gogh!" when he could be skateboarding.
(there is also an iPad app!)
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