Our mission is and will always be to teach the arts and the values that come with it. Our teaching artists have made many of our program offerings and teaching tools and reference materials available online for you for free.
Even if you can’t attend one of our in person classes we can still make beautiful art together and you can share our purpose of spreading impactful art lessons will others. In fact, in some ways, a virtual setting can help us reach even more kids and families.
Art Activities
Americans For The Arts Blog | Artsonia: Online Student Art Portfolios | Art career and education database | Art Projects for Kids | Beginner Drawing Help from Drawing Space | Bug and Insect Crafts for Kids | Carla Sonheim: Tutorials & Drawing Assignments | Crayola Art lesson Plans | Crayola Crafts and DIY Projects | Dick Blick Craft Projects | Free Online Art Lessons from Arty Factory | Free Online Art Lessons from Lois Dewitt | Free Online Drawing Lessons, Videos, and Exercises from Carol’s Drawing Blog | Hands in Art | Introduction to Art Journaling | Kinder Art | Online Art Lessons from Artists Network | Paper Craft Projects from Canon Creative Park | Thalo: An Art Community | Web Museum Paris | Why Kids Should Learn About ArtArt & Music History
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University | Art Institute of Chicago | Art of Video Games | Art 21: A PBS Show About Contemporary Art |Artcyclopedia | Decor and Art of the White House | Free Library of Philadelphia | How to Research Your Art | Library of Congress Prints and Photographs: Online Catalog | Metropolitan Museum of Art: Kids and Families | Musical Instruments – Library of Congress | National Endowment for the Arts Podcasts | National Gallery Of Art | National Museum of American History | National Museum of the American Indian | National Museum of Mexican Art | National Museum of Women in the Arts | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | Performances at the White House | Philadelphia Museum of Art | Smithsonian Folkways: Folk Music Videos from Around the World | Smithsonian Nathional Museum of African Art | Street Artists Given Free Reign over Building in Paris | University of Colorado Art and Art HistoryEducation Through Art
ArtsEdge | Crayola Education Materials | Institute for Arts Integration and Steam | Lesson Plan on Iridescent Insects and Art Project from Crayola | National Art Education Association Home Page | National Guild for Community Arts Education | See, Hear and Sing America’s Story | Smithsonian Kids
Healing Through Art
Art Therapy Blog + Career Search Engine | Art Transforming Trauma – A Window Between Worlds | Childrens Healing Art Project | Healing Through Creative Expression | GLSEN’s No Name Calling Week | Public Art: An Essential Component of Creating Communities | Students Against Violence Everywhere | Theraputic Art Books from Art With Heart | 5-Minute Meditations for Activists
Resources for Teachers
Alliance For Excellent Education | AP Art History Teacher’s Guide | Arts Education Partnership | Center for Effective Learning | Dick Blick Lesson Plans | Discovery Education | EDSITEment: The Best of the Humanities on the Web | Education.com | Edutopia | Elementary Lesson Plan on Bats | National Science Foundation | PBS Learning Media | Pro Teacher Insect Lessons | Scholastic Free Lesson Plans | Share My Lesson: Lesson Plan Search Engine | Transforming Fear in the Aftermath of School Shootings | USA Government Systems Lesson Plans | Using Technology in Education and Mobile Learning | WNET: Education Search
Art History, Music and Craft Curriculum
Exploring the amazing collection of Public Art that Philadelphia has to offer for free. In tough times art has the power to remind us that there are happier times ahead.
Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO is an interactive program for Philadelphia’s public art. Listen to stories told by people from all walks of life who are directly connected to the sculptures. Use their interactive map and gallery to plan your next social distancing walk!
Kristin’s pick for this week is The Dream Garden (1914 – 1915).
This beautiful mosaic made of hundreds of thousands of iridescent glass pieces was the only collaboration between painter Maxfield Frederich Parrish and glass master Louis Comfort Tiffany. As a muralist, she misses collaborating in person with others these days but this breathtaking piece has the power to make her feel both large and small. Over the years, this work has helped her put things in perspective… and it is lit up at night so the beauty always shines.
Interpret music through your art! Are your lines jagged and racing or soft and flowing? Do the colors radiate from a central place or do they move like shapes in patterns? Let the music inform your choices.
- The Philadelphia Orchestra is sharing past and previously unreleased performances. You can listen or watch for free online.
- The New York City Metropolitan Opera is streaming a performance from its archives every night through the duration of the closure. Recordings are available for 20 hours after they are streamed.
- 92Y, a world class cultural and community center in NYC has made its online archives—which contain hundreds of recordings of readings, concerts, and educational talks—free to the public during this time.
- Major opera houses and concert halls around the world are streaming free archival performances: The Paris Opera, London’s Wigmore Hall, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, The Vienna State Opera, and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
- ColdPlay’s Chris Martin Performs a Virtual Concert to call for action on Coronavirus
- Crayola is Offering 52 Weeks of Activities
- Dick Blick is Offering Free Art Projects
- Michals is Offering 100 Craft Making Projects
Other Museum and Nature Curriculum
- Many museums are opening up their doors digitally, some for the first time ever. Take advantage of these online experiences and make an art piece inspired by a famous artist.
- Paris’ Louvre Museum, The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the San Diego Museum of Art offer virtual tours.
- Google offers digital tours of more than 2,500 museums and galleries around the world, including New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
- London’s National Gallery offers 10 separate Monet collection
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan is giving free public access to more than 200 art books from its digital archives until the museum reopens.
- New York City’s American Museum of Natural History is making its previously recorded tours of the museum halls available on Facebook Live every day at 2 p.m. (EST) throughout its closure. The virtual tours, which are led by museum guides, take viewers through collections in the museum’s Hall of African Mammals, Hall of the North American Forests, Hall of Meteorites, and more. You can access an in-depth collection of the museum’s educational materials, for both adults and children, on its website here.
Find fun and new ways to make art and learn in your own home.
- Enjoy this list of fun indoor activities for kids
- Scholastic’s “Learn at Home” website offers 3 hours of learning a day for students in Pre-K to 6th Grade. Courses include virtual field trips, writing and research projects, and online geography challenges.
- Draw a Self Portrait and Laugh – Laughter and laughter meditations and yoga, can all relieve stress from being stuck inside. Watch birds laughing to get you started.
Nature has been a source of inspiration for artists for thousands of years. Many zoos and natural preserves have opened up their doors through live digital cameras.
- Put yourself in the place of American Pioneer’s – listen to animals in nature from America’s National Parks and draw what you hear. Take some quiet time to learn how to identify birds from their songs.
- See and hear landmarks of Yellowstone National Park
- Virtually travel to see America’s other natural wonders and take geological tours.
- California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium has live cams featuring sea otters swimming and sharks
- Atlanta, Georgia has several awesome live cams, including the Georgia Aquarium live cam of whales, piranhas, and penguins, watch puppies and kittens from the Atlanta Humane Society, and watch Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda twins.
- The San Diego Zoo offers more than 10 live webcams that give viewers a glimpse at orangutan, tigers, koalas, giraffes, and over 30 butterfly species.
- The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden hosts a “Home Safari” on their Facebook Live Feed featuring a different animal star each day, such as one of its resident Komodo dragons, manatees, aardvarks, or even Fiona the Hippo.
- Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary has eight different “Koala Cams“.
- A live puffin cam can be seen from the Seal Island National Wildlife
- The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center Refuge offers a live Gorilla Webcam
- The National Park Service offers a Bald Eagle Nest Webcam
- Tembe Elephant Park has a 24/7 live stream camera placed near one of its waterholes where elephants, lions, leopards, rhinoceros, and buffalo gather.
- WildEarth have teamed up to lead daily Livestream safaris from South Africa’s andBeyond Ngala Private Game Reserve
- Shenshuping Gengda Panda Center shows an ongoing live stream of endangered animals
- See bears on the Brown Bear Webcam from the Katmai National Park and Preserve
Video Art Classes