From your colleague, Mary McMahon, two ideas for gallery activities:
“The instructor asked that we compare and contrast art from Europe, North America, Asia and Africa (no small task!!). I developed the theme of Blue used in art from ancient times to present starting with Egyptian Blue and ending with International Klein Blue (IKB). For Europe, we discussed ultra marine blue and how it differed from cheaper blues that faded over time focusing on the triptych Lamentation with Saint John the Baptist in gallery 342. For our next “object” I sent them to gallery 343 with the direction to find a painting with blue in it that they really liked and stand in front of it. I gave them a minute or two to decide then with each student, I asked what they liked about their painting or why they chose it. Then I asked them to describe the areas of blue and whether they thought cheap blue or ultra marine blue was used and why. It was a really fun exercise and the students really focused on their particular painting.”
“I wanted to share another participatory exercise from my tour today. My theme was about story telling through art, from fables and myths to the unknown. After talking about Lady Tashat and her biography drawn on the sarcophagus we went to the Female Figure from the Cyclades. I told the students where this figure came from and a little about the Cyclades but explained that we didn’t know her story or what happened there. So I asked the students to create the story. We sat on the ground, I was the transcriber, and the students took turns creating a story about the woman. Even giving her a name – the first group chose Rosetta, the second, Alythia. They were very creative and loved this exercise! I then gave them the story to share with their teacher. I would definitely do this again and all you need is piece of paper and a pencil.”