Art Standard 4: History and Cultures

Students will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.

K-12 Performance Standards
Educational experiences in Grades K-4 will ensure that students:
  • recognize that the visual arts have a history and a variety of cultural purposes and meanings; and
  • identify specific works of art as belonging to particular styles, cultures, times and places; and
  • create art work that demonstrates understanding of how history or culture can influence visual art.

 

Educational experiences in Grades 5-8 will ensure that students:
  • know and compare the characteristics and purposes of works of art representing various cultures, historical periods and artists; and
  • describe and place a variety of specific significant art objects by artist, style and historical and cultural context; and
  • analyze, describe and demonstrate how factors of time and place (such as climate, natural resources, ideas and technology) influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art.

 

Educational experiences in Grades 9-12 will ensure that students:
  • analyze and interpret art works in terms of form, cultural and historical context, and purose; and
  • analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among cultural/ethnic groups in order to formulate analyses, evaluations and interpretations of meaning; and
  • compare works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics and culture; justify conclusions made and use these conclusions to inform their own art making.

 

Using the On-Line Learning Sites to Teach About History and Cultures:

The Museum’s on-line learning sites can be used to expose your students to the history of the Lyme Art Colony as well as the paintings they created that demonstrate how factors of time and place (such as climate, natural resources, ideas and technology) influenced the visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art.

The Lyme Art Colony represents a distinct chapter in American art and history. It began in 1899 when the artist Henry Ward Ranger visited Old Lyme in search of a place to begin an American art colony and met Florence Griswold.  The village, once a thriving maritime center had become a rural backwater, steeped in the old-fashioned qualities the artists found desirable.  The Griswold boardinghouse (a 19th-century phenomenon itself) in the village of Old Lyme was seemingly ideal to house an art colony for several reasons: it was easily accessible from New York by train, the lodgings were both charming and affordable, the surrounding landscape offered an abundance of subject matter, and the landlady, Miss Florence, was sympathetic to the needs (as well as egos) of the artists. These artists were escaping the summer heat and modernity anxieties of the city, and sought a place where they could paint en plein air, or outdoors, directly in front of their chosen subject.  Their finished canvases, filled with country freshness and iconic American symbols of old homesteads, village life, and the family farm, were in demand by city dwellers who appreciated the nostalgic scenes of a rural America. 

 

Using the On-Line Learning Sites to Learn About History and Cultures:

There are several sections of The Fox Chase site where students can specifically investigate the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures:

 

There are several sections of the In Situ: The Painted Panel site where students can specifically investigate the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures:

  • Go to The Fox Chase  by Henry Rankin Poore for a historical overview of the  creation of this painting.

  • Go to Poor Little Bloticelli by Willard Metcalf for information regarding issues of gender within the art colony system. 

  • Go to Evening Skyline from the Water by Charles Vezin for a great example of a panel painted that features a historic skyscraper in New York City.

 

There are several selections from the menu of Scholar Essays that specifically address the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures:

  • Go to Lyme Art Colony for information regarding the development of the Lyme Art Colony.

  • Go to Miss Florence for information regarding the history of the Griswold family.

  • Go to CT Impressionism for information regarding the development of this painting style in America and specifically in Connecticut. 

  • Go to New England Identity for information regarding the development of the Colonial Revival movement and the marketing of New England images.

  • Go to Boardinghouses for specific information regarding the development of the boardinghouse system in 19th-century America.

 

There are several selections from the menu of Educators’ Toolbox that specifically address the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures:

  • Go to Timeline for information regarding the development of the Lyme Art Colony along with other major historical moments.

  • Go to Wiggle Drawings for information regarding this historic activity played by the artists.  The game and resulting images offer a window into the past.

 

Activities Relating to the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures:

  • Go to Dear Miss Florence . . . for a lesson plan that prompts writing a letter using a historic voice. 

  • Go to Wiggles & Giggles for a lesson plan that features the historic wiggle game.