African art is no different. For some, it may initially hold few clues that help unpack its meaning. Those viewers may have little knowledge of Africa or could actually be African–from a different part of the continent, a totally different culture, or members of a religion that distances them even from a work their own hometown produced.

No art is completely transparent, letting us understand all of an artist’s constraints, thoughts, choices, or associations. But if we are not privy to all of an artist’s perceptions and interpretations, we can lessen the differences in our understanding–and this is a process that creates human pleasure in both cerebral and sensual ways. By familiarizing ourselves with art, learning its visual vocabulary and grammar, assessing our taste for it, and placing it within the contexts of its makers and users, we expand our world.

This is an Arts 1303 - Art History I survey course designed based on Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook. Sources include Smarthistory as well as online materials produced by art museums including videos and art-historical essays. This is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts. Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce. This resource will continuously be updated throughout 2022.This course was developed for Texas art history instructors to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for use with various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an Arts 1304 History of Art II course that compiles online OER resources primarily from Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook, and other online materials produced by art museums including videos and art historical essays.  Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce, this is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts designed to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for Texas art history instructors using various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed under Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

The Boundless Art History textbook is a college-level, introductory textbook that provides an overview of Art History from pre-history through to modern global art.

During the fall of 2017, art educator B. Stephen Carpenter II began a residency at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). He provided new perspectives on issues of access, privilege, and the global water crisis through a series of seminars, performances, and workshops. Carpenter's seminars illustrated ways of disrupting systems of oppression and ways to increase access to potable water in politically marginalized communites in the United States and abroad.

This is an art history textbook with content covering media, art techniques, and art history. This resource is published by Boise State University.

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

This book is about how to read, use, and create maps. Our exploration of maps will be informed by a contextual understanding of how maps reflect the relationship between society and technology, and how mapping is an essential form of scientific and artistic inquiry. We will also explore how mapping is used to address a variety of societal issues, such as land use planning and political gerrymandering. You will gain insight into the technical underpinnings of mapping as a science approach, complement on-going interest and activities, or provide an applied focus for research or policy.

Practice Looking at Art. Engaging with a work of art is a meaningful and lasting experience. This four-step process encourages close looking and careful thinking with any work of art, whether viewed in the Museum, in the classroom, or at home.

Informed by a writing philosophy that values both spontaneity and discipline, Michelle Bonczek Evory’s Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations offers practical advice and strategies for developing a writing process that is centered on play and supported by an understanding of America’s rich literary traditions. With consideration to the psychology of invention, Bonczek Evory provides students with exercises aimed to make writing in its early stages a form of play that gives way to more enriching insights through revision, embracing the writing of poetry as both a love of language and a tool that enables us to explore ourselves and better understand the world. The volume includes resources for students seeking to publish and build a writing-centered lifestyle or career. Poets featured range in age, subject, and style, and many are connected to colleges in the State University of New York system. Naming the Unnameable promotes an understanding of poetry as a living art of which students are a part, and provides ways for students to involve themselves in the growing contemporary poetry community that thrives in America today.

" Still photography, a practice and form of expression that has worked its way into every facet of social life and every culture in the world, is considered here from the perspectives of history and social science. We will discuss the uses and functions of pictures; how they are to be understood and interpreted; whether they have clear-cut content and meanings; how they shape and are shaped by politics, economics, and social life."

We will study not only art and music to better understand these forms, we will also study where those forms came from and the cultural and economic impact they had on the public. We will also learn about how the artists and musicians dealt with or got around gatekeepers, along with who could get access to these forms of art and music.

Artist Tony Luciani was testing out a new camera when his 91-year-old mother, Elia, snuck into the background of his photos. The spontaneous images that resulted sparked a years-long collaboration, with Luciani documenting his mom's life and spirit as she lived with dementia. In this touching talk, he shares the stories behind some of their favorite shots, capturing the joy and grief of caring for an aging parent. Duration: 13:23.

Contributors to this open textbook offer relatable descriptions, details, and contexts of artworks from around the world, which have often been relegated to the peripheries of art and social history. Art traditions from Africa, Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, Islamicate regions, East Asia, and the indigenous Americas (before colonization) are prioritized to challenge the long-held view that “real art” only comes from the West. Introductory discussions of the history of art history and geographic conventions set the stage for considering the larger question, “where does art come from,” and other questions such as, “why haven’t I heard much about art from Africa, Oceania, etc.?” This book takes a pluralistic approach, forefronting diversity and interconnectedness. Scholars and students collaborated to produce this book. Student contributions will continue to improve the text and interactivity as it evolves. A scavenger hunt of student-made “easter eggs” builds a thread of engagement and humor throughout the book. Make sure to find them all!

Art appreciation is centered on the ability to view art throughout history, focusing on the cultures and the people, and how art developed in the specific periods. You cannot understand art without understanding the culture, their use of materials and sense of beauty. Art is also conveyed by the simple act of creating art for art’s sake. Every person is born with the innate desire to create art and similar to other professions, training is essential in honing skills to produce art.