Courses

Art Appreciation (Various CC licences).

This course from Lumen Learning investigates how quality is determined and created by artists in order to evaluate and appreciate art on a deeper level, and emphasizes why each topic contributes to valuing a piece of art and provides the necessary knowledge to do so. Students are first introduced to the elements and principles of art and the importance of artists’ context and perspective. The course then covers different periods in art history, different techniques in art, and how to research and evaluate art.

Art Appreciation (CC BY).

This course, from Saylor, is an exploration of visual art forms and their cultural connections across historical periods, designed for the student with little experience in the visual arts. It includes brief studies in art history, and in-depth inquiry into the elements, media and methods used in a wide range of creative processes.

Art Appreciation (CC BY-NC-SA).

From East Tennessee State University, this course explores the world’s visual arts, focusing on the development of visual awareness, assessment, and appreciation by examining a variety of styles from various periods and cultures while emphasizing the development of a common visual language. The materials are meant to foster a broader understanding of the role of visual art in human culture and experience from the prehistoric through the contemporary.

Art History I (Various CC licences).

This course is from Lumen Learning, and offered through SUNY.

Introduction to Art Concepts (Various CC licences).

This course is from Lumen Learning.

Supplementary Materials

The Greats (CC BY-NC-SA).

A free vault with carefully curated socially engaged visual content open to anyone to use or adapt non-commercially. The Greats is a project of Fine Acts – a non-profit creative studio for global social impact.

WISC-Online Visual Arts Learning Objects (CC BY-NC).

A collection of learning objects on topics related to visual arts.

Textbooks

The Bright Continent: African Art History (CC BY-NC-SA).

This book aims to act as your map through the world of African art. As such, it will help you define the competencies you need to develop–visual analysis, research, noting what information is critical, asking questions, and writing down your observations–and provide opportunities for you to practice these skills until you are proficient. It will also expose you to new art forms and the worlds that produced them, enriching your understanding and appreciation.

Websites

Art History Teaching Resources (CC BY-NC).

AHTR is a peer-populated platform for art history teachers and home to a constantly evolving and collectively authored online repository of art history teaching content including, but not limited to, lesson plans, video introductions to museums, book reviews, image clusters, and classroom and museum activities. The site promotes discussion and reflection around new ways of teaching and learning in the art history classroom through a peer-populated blog, and fosters a collaborative virtual community for art history instructors at all career stages.

ArtxHistory (CC BY-NC-SA).

An educational resource of commonly available images, videos, mini-lectures and scholarship of the decades which influenced or defined the mid-century through contemporary art. Most links are concise in content, of prevalent works of art in the early or mature stage of an artist’s career, sourced from museum, academic, journalistic and for profit institutions. The core intent is to offer an art history that replaces the dominant white, male, heteronormative, advantaged, celebrity narratives for a more inclusive history balanced with the work of women, artists of color, LGBTQIA+ persons, intersectional makers, and the self-taught.