• Understand the artwork of at least one very well known artist that is similar to artwork we have done in our class. 
• Understand the artwork of artists in other cultures, both genders, and other times that has similarities to the artwork we have done in this project. 
• This webquest is not intended to give you ideas to imitate in your media work.  Our media work is to be done based on our own experiences, concerns, imaginations and/or observations.
• Also see How to Select, below.

• Work with one to three other students in our class.
• Have a discussion and generate a list of words, names, subjects, art form, and visual concepts relating to the studio project.
• Enter various combinations of your list in search engines to look for web sites that have images, biographies, and other useful related information.  Start with Google.com/  Also try the college's search box.  
• Decide on one very important artist's work to feature in your dramatization. The artist is selected based on several criteria.  See criteria listed below.
• You can find artists and artwork quickly using  Google Image search.  All you need is the name of an artist or the name of an artwork.
  http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&ie=UTF-8
• See A Guide to Building a Webquest at:
  http://www.aprendelo.com/rec/a-guide-to-building-webquest.html

• Include a short one page or less handout for the class.  Web URLs (universal resource locator -- this is the web page address) should be included with a brief description for each URL. 
• After looking at a large number of possibilities, select at least one image of art work for discussion that best exemplifies ideas similar to what were used for our project. *(see How to Select)
• Prepare a short Powerpoint presentation including at least one important artwork done by the artist.  Include image source reference.
• See this instruction page to copy the image from the web site.  Save them to your own computer drive, then INSERT them into your Powerpoint presentaion file.  
• Do not forget to copy the URL (universal resource locator) (web page address) where each image is found and include it as part of the Powerpoint file and the handout for class.
• Distribute your one-sheet handout to the whole class. 
  The instructor agrees to photocopy one sheet handouts with one or two sides printed. You bring the originals at least 15 minutes prior to the class session - or send them by e-mail in advance.

• Give part of the class presentation as a short drama skit.  Cast one group member as the well known artist.  Cast one or more others in your group as a friend, an interviewer, a relative, the artist's model, the artist's spouse, or some other person who can interact with the artist in a way that reveals something quite significant about the artist. Consider props and costuming. 
• This may be a live presentation or a video presentation prepared in advance.

• Include work included in major encyclopedias or art history survey books. HINT:  When you do not know where to start, start in the library to look in the Encyclopedia of Art or in an art history survey book.  Browse for what you are looking for.  
• CAUTION:  Avoid spending class time on work that is not significant enough to be in a MAJOR museum collection.  The Internet includes lots of artwork that is not recognized, so if have not studied art history, rely on published books or an expert to determine the significance of an artist.
• When teaching we present gender equity. We include both female and male artists or we alternate during the year.
• When teaching we include multi-cultural examples.  
• When teaching we include work by artists who are in a minority in this country.
• When teaching we include work that relates to your student's level of development.
• When teaching we include work that relates to the most recent studio work done in class.  The work can relate in terms of style, subject matter, media, compositional approach, social issue, and so forth. HINT: When you are the teacher, start with an art lesson idea from a webquest but keep the artist examples secret until after the students have done creative work based on their own creativity.  Looking at artwork by great artists is great way to get ideas for art lessons.  To teach the lesson, try to figure out what the artist's motivation might have been, not simply the look of the work.  Then give the students similar motivation, materials, etc. and the your exemplar will fit at the end.
• Consider the objectives of the assignment when selecting exemplars.

        For example, if the students have just completed an assemblage of sticks and boxes to make a nonobjective sculpture, you might select something made by a famous sculptor that looks like the sculpture on the Goshen College campus by John Mishler.  Famous women sculptors represented in major museums who make assemblage works include Louise Nevelson, Marisol Sol Escobar, Maya Lin (you search Google images), Barbara Hepworth, Ruth Duckworth, and many others.  These links were all located by using Google Image search.
http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&ie=UTF-8

• Team members evaluate each other's participation and help.
• Other class members will assess presentations and e-mailed information. 
• Class member's success on certain test items will affirm information from webquest information. 

Third grade at Honeyville Elementary, Topeka, IN, working on a "Portrait Collage" showing emotion and feeling. They are surrealistically pasting unexpected pictures made from faces cut from magazines. 

Fall Semester, 1998. 
Kim Lint, Goshen College student teacher. 
Rebekah Short, art teacher.

Here the students are talking about their work.  On the chalkboard are the steps used during the making of their portrait montage.  The steps posted were:  1) Cut it out  2) Decide on feeling (emotion)  3) Select paper (backing color)  4) Arrange  5) Glue What example from art history should this teacher use at the end of this lesson?  How could she use a webquest to find an appropriate examplar?.

All Rights reserved: Photos, layout, and text © Marvin Bartel 2002. This page may not be copied or posted or published.  Art teachers may make one copy for their own use. Anybody is welcome to make links to this page from their page.  Contact the author for other permissions.

updated on August 20, 2010  top of page