NGA Classroom

The National Gallery of Art houses one of the finest collections in the world, illustrating major achievements in painting, sculpture, and graphic arts from the Middle Ages to the present. This robust Web site provides a single front door to all the rich material the museum offers educators. The Resource Finder allows teachers to select from more than 75 educational lesson plans by curriculum, topic, or artist. Search result pages provide teachers with detailed lists featuring highlighted artwork, descriptions, and links to resources at the NGA site. On the site, Super-Learner Interactives function as stand-alone modules that allow students to interact with artworks and even create their own works of art. For instance, students can become masters of myths, learning of Roman gods and the symbols associated with them, in the Ancient Arcade game or they can draw, paint, and print a medal to award to their hero or heroine using the Medal Maker.

The site is simple and playful, bringing attention to the variety of showcased artworks, and was specifically designed to allow for easy and immediate access to the variety of educational resources to be created by the NGA in the future. A Featured Lessons section focuses on the Art& series, and uses a stylized template system to allow for additional updates in the years to come. Each lesson provides an art discussion and student activities, including an Art Inquiry interactive quiz, printable worksheets, related resources, and a glossary.