By Louise Palermo, Curator of Education
As we place a bit of distance between ourselves and others, there is a wonderful way to experience art museums from the comfort of home. Through Google Arts & Culture, thousands of the great artworks of all time, including those from the collections of Maryhill Museum of Art, are at our fingertips!
In addition to viewing some beautiful artworks, you can use the National Core Arts Standards to connect to school lessons in a fun way. This will brighten your day and prepare you for your next in-person visit to Maryhill, hopefully in the not-too-distant future!
USING GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE TO EXPLORE THEMES
Go to Maryhill’s page on Google Arts & Culture, and take a quick look at the images. Choose a theme, idea, or area of interest as a lens to view artworks and create a focus. A theme can be math, science, fashion, history, biology…well, you see the direction and the possibilities!
Once you have a theme, identify images that fit with that theme by double-clicking on that image and making it a favorite by clicking on the heart icon. These favorites will go to your PROFILE at the top of the page, where you can create galleries of your favorite artwork. You can save your galleries and invite friends to look at your collections and add their own images from other museums.
THEMATIC EXPLORATION IDEAS
FASHION
Fashion from around the world is at your fingertips. Sacred. Swirling. Everyday. Formal. Ancient. Narrative. Royal. Native American. French. Romanian.
- Maryhill’s extensive collection of Romanian textiles began with Queen Marie’s gift and has grown from there. As said of Romanian clothing, “Clothes may make the man, but women made everyone’s clothes. By hand. From scratch. This persisted in rural southeastern Europe into the 20th century and occasionally into the 21st.” Maryhill has an excellent exhibition of the brilliant fashions of Romania and we hope you get to enjoy it soon. With examples of rich embroidery on delicate cloth, find the photograph of Queen Marie in traditional textiles.
- Or explore haute couture fashion of Theatre de la Mode.Look closely at the shape of the skirts, their length, the materials and colors and decide what time of day and for what occasion these would best be worn. What else do these clothes tell you about society post World War II?
- Don’t miss the clothing of North American Indigenous People by exploring whaling hats, beaded vests, and glorious dresses, pants, gloves, and bags, to view a few of our many objects.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
- Queen Marie of Romania’s daughter, Elizabeth, was Queen Consort of Greece through her marriage to Prince George of Greece. She generously donated several Tanagra statuettes, examples of sculpture enjoyed in personal homes. Cypriot vessels tell a story through shape, size, material and decoration Explore the pose, actions, expressions, and details to understand their story. What can you discover by examining these details?
- Look for ANIMALS that are represented! Make a list of all you can find and research information about these animals. What does the animal’s life tell us about the people who made these objects?
WANT TO DELVE DEEPER?
To really explore your themes, write an ekphrastic poem inspired by your images; ekphrastic means art inspired by another form of art.
Google has an infinite reach into all the great museums of the world. We encourage you to visit Paris, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg…but first, visit the great artworks of Maryhill Museum of Art. And when we reopen, you will be greeted by “old friends” and make new ones. We look forward to seeing you then.