Educator Resources

This teaching packet includes an essay, discussion questions, activity ideas, a glossary, and images of three photographs from Dawoud Bey’s first significant body of work.

The works executed in the last decade or so of Philip Guston's life depict a world populated by hooded figures, disembodied body parts, clocks, light bulbs, and various tools and materials found in a painter's studio.

This ceramic sculpture of a camel and rider is an example of a type of mingqi, or tomb figure. During the Tang Dynasty whenever a rich or powerful person died they were buried with clay objects depicting people, animals, and fantastic creatures

Artist Marc Chagall began working on his design for the windows in 1976, America’s bicentennial year, and constructed the windows as a tribute to the freedom of artistic expression enjoyed by the people of the United States.

Art + Science was developed by the Art Institute of Chicago to support dialogue and collaboration between art and science teachers at the middle school level, with the ultimate goal of inspiring art and science integration in the curriculum.

Thinly and rapidly painted, Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando) (1887-88) has the confident, improvisational quality of a drawing. Its subject is the Circus Fernando, one of the first permanent circuses in Paris.

This sculpture of Ganesha, Hinduism's Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles, posed mid-dance, is sure to amuse with his oversized elephant head and rotund belly.

With its pulsating strands and slashes of bright color, this work evokes memories of bustling cities that Mitchell recalled from her travels in the American Midwest.

This screen celebrates the Japanese tradition of viewing cherry blossoms to mark the arrival of spring. The tree's blossoms and hanging poem slips create an elegant design against the gold of the silk.

Charles Wilbert White depicted the dignity of rural labor with two powerful figures. The contours of scythe, hat brims, and forearms echo the curves of the horizon and clouds, portraying these workers in harmony with the landscape.

This sculptural fragment depicts Xilonen, the youthful Aztec goddess of new maize. The many existing carvings of Xilonen suggest her importance in Aztec culture as one of three female maize deities representing stages of crop growth and maturation.

This painting depicts the dignified, Chicago-based artist Archibald J. Motley, Jr. The traditional composition and lively colors that hint of his future Bronzeville paintings offer a glimpse into the complexity of Motley himself.

Adriaen van Ostade's Merrymakers in an Inn illustrates peasants of multi-generations celebrating a joyous event in a spacious and picturesque interior.

In Many Mansions, Kerry James Marshall combined the real and the ideal to portray the residents' efforts to preserve their community.

To render this haunting portrait, Albright used a precise painting technique that encourages viewers to look at all the details that convey Ida's persona, such as clothing, accessories, and setting.