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Resources for Teachers

Through its grant program the Terra Foundation supports the development and/or dissemination of American art instructional materials for the classroom. A selection of foundation-supported resources is described below.

American Art

American Art (2008) is a curriculum manual from the Art Institute of Chicago that highlights 45 works dating from the Colonial era to the 20th century in the museum's collection, including a selection of works on long-term loan from the Terra Foundation. The manual contains: extended texts discussing 26 primary works of art and brief texts discussing 19 secondary and related works of art; 14 lesson plans correlating to Illinois State Learning Standards; a timeline and overview of American art and cultural history; maps showing the development of the United States; 8.5-x-11-inch color posters of the primary works; and a CD containing the manual's full text and images and live links to additional internet resources. For information about how to acquire the American Art manual, please contact the Crown Family Educator Resource Center at the Art Institute at 312 443 3719.

Picturing America

Picturing America (2007), developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a resource for teaching American history and other humanities subjects. It includes 40 large, high-quality color posters of a diverse selection of American artworks and an Educators Resource Book containing teaching ideas and background information to support the use of the posters in core subjects. With support from the Terra Foundation, a Picturing America set was provided to nearly every CPS school in the fall of 2008. Additional information about Picturing America is available at http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/. Download the complete Picturing America Educators Resource Book.

Chicago Humanities Festival American Art Lectures On-line

See and hear slide a presentation by prominent scholar Erika Doss on "Picturing New Deal American Visual Art and National Identity, 1933–1945." This is the first in what will be a series of online presentations based on the Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art delivered at the annual Chicago Humanities Festival. The online presentations are excellent resources for teachers and students of art and art history, U.S. history, and American studies. 

"Artbeat" American Art Segments

Learn about notable Chicago artists, collections, and places of artistic significance by viewing a series of "Artbeat" segments about American art, produced for WTTW11's nighly news magazine Chicago Tonight. Topics range from Progressive-era murals at Lane Tech High School to Chicago artist and collector Roger Brown, and from Tiffany stained glass and mosaics at the Chicago Cultural Center to the art and work space of outsider artist Henry Darger.

Visual Thinking Strategies Video

Watch master teacher Philip Yenawine demonstrate Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a learner-centered instructional technique, in a 2003 teacher workshop. Yenawine engages participants in an extended examination and discussion of the painting Gallery of the Louvre in the Terra collection.

Teacher Guides

Review and print a selection of guides based on works of art in the Terra collection. The guides include contextual information, discussion questions, and suggested activities for the classroom.