Top Ten Online Art Museum Resources for Kids

Visit an art museum on the Internet. KidsArt brings you links to our favorite children’s web presentations from museums around the U.S.

NGAKidsBanner1. The National Gallery of Art – NGAKids Art Zone is a free app for iPad, packed with with interactive art…tons of projects to try online, tons of great art for kids to discover.

2. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Restoring a Masterwork: a web presentation on how art museums clean and repair old paintings.

3. An Eye for Art A collection of art history activities, like Studying Nature and Telling Stories…. and over 50 printable pdf booklets about great artists through history, all free online from the National Gallery of Art.

Exploratoriumcolor4. The Exploratorium Museum’s Hands-on Activities …more science than art, but fantastic stuff anyway!

5. Metropolitan Museum of Art – Kids’ Zone Links to Start with Art (activities for kids 4-6) and Art Trek (activities for kids 7-12).  There’s a Teen Zone at the Met too!

6. The MET also brings us METKids with a variety of kid-friendly museum resources including our favorite Time Machine – where kids can select 1. a time period in history – 2.  a part of the world – and 3. a topic or category….then push a button to see famous works of art that fit their selection.  (Refresh the page to do another selection).

7. The Boston Children’s Museum has created a huge set of project videos for kids at home.  Start with Let’s make psychedelic milk! for a fun exploration of color mixing…then check out the rest on the Boston Children’s Museum youtube channel.

8. Art From Home from the Minneapolis Institute of Art brings you At-Home Art Making, Teacher Resources and Activities for Virtual Visits.

9. MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, presents Destination Modern Art – a fun website that encourages kids to explore paintings, sculptures, and installations with online activities and hands-on projects.  It does require the programming system called Flash, which many newer browsers don’t install any more….so if you’re unable to view the site, email MOMA and encourage them to rebuild it!

10. Country Dog Gentlemen Travel to Extraordinary Worlds is a cute animated video series where the canine characters from Roy De Forest’s playful painting take you on adventures to learn about famous artworks in SFMOMA’s collection.

10.  Tate Kids from the UK offers space where kids can create galleries by sending in their own work and favorite museum works. Games galore;,art project ideas for kids, and an Adult Zone for parents and teachers.

11. The Smithsonian Learning Lab invites you to create a free account to explore and play a huge collection of design, science, engineering and other activities.  There’s also a special section called Fun Stuff for Kids and Teens filled with art and multi-cultural games.

BONUS: The mesmerizing Otto Fischinger music maker from Google doodles.

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Whether you and your young artists visit a museum on-line or in a nearby city, the book How to Talk to Children About Art provides the kinds of questions a child might ask about the paintings, then gives straightforward answers. Buy this handy title from the KidsArt on-line store.

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